Struggle for Sanity
by Howl's Curse
Summary: In an alternate Universe, a young Naruto, possessed by Kurama after being beaten to the brink of death by the inhabitants of Konoha, runs away from the village. Only to be captured and coerced into joining Akatsuki. Shortly afterwards, A potent chakra disease begins to spread and wreak havoc on the shinobi world. Naruto is the key to saving the world... But will he want to?
1. Chapter 1

**Hi guys! ^-^ This is my first Fic, so I hope you enjoy! I'm thinking of possible pairings for Naruto right now, but we'll see where it goes :P BTW, There will be FemAkatsuki. Not all of them though. Hidan, Orochimaru, Kisame and Itachi are all girls in this Fic.**

Konohagakure. Home to the strongest shinobi in the elemental nations, proud bearers of the will of fire... At least, that's what the inhabitants believe. It was October 10th in Konoha. The eighth anniversary of the night that changed Konoha, for the worse. The night of the Kyuubi attack.

Night had just begun to fall on Konoha as we peer into the Hokage office. "I'm getting to old for this crap," A very annoyed third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, thought aloud as he looked at the heaps upon heaps of paperwork on his desk. Ever since the untimely demise of the fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato, he was pressed back into office. That was eight years ago.

His thoughts were broken by the surge of a dark chakra that he had hoped he would never have to feel again. 'Naruto!' He thought to himself in a panic.

 _15 Minutes Prior_

'Why do they always do this?! What did i do to them...?' Thought a teary eyed Naruto as he ran through the streets and alleys of Konoha hoping to escape the angry mob that was behind him yelling things like, "Get back here demon!" or, "Let's finish what the fourth started!"

This was a normal occurance on Naruto's birthday, except for this time, he had nowhere to hide. 'I have to get to Jiji!' Naruto thought urgently. He knew that the Hokage, his grandfather figure, would protect him. He looked off into the distance at the the Hokage mansion. It was really far away, barely visible over the other buildings in the area. It was at least a mile away.

Naruto turned into an alley hoping to at least throw a few of them off. He ran until he could see another alley extending from the one he was currently in. He was halfway through when he saw the mob in front of him at the end of the alley, smirking as if they'd caught their prey. Naruto looked behind him only to see that a group of shinobi was cutting him off from his escape. They looked to be chunin to Naruto.

He was panicking as the mob steadily grew closer. Naruto had been caught before. He'd been beaten, _tortured_ even. But this was just too much. They had all manner of weapons, not to mention the shinobi on the other side of him.

Before he knew it they were already on him, one of the shinobi punched him in the gut, knocking the wind out of him and throwing him on the ground. The mob surrounded the boy and began to brutally beat him. He tried to stand but a villager stabbed him in the back with a pitchfork. Naruto screamed out in pain. The beatings continued, and Naruto's world was enveloped by pain. His vision went black and he passed out.

 _Mindscape_

Naruto awoke in a dark sewer. He remembered what happened to him in the alley. He was so angry. He wanted to take the pain away. He wanted to kill the people who hurt him.

 **"I can give you the power you need to get your revenge**." The voice seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Naruto looked all around him, only to see nothing.

 **"Follow the light,"** A bright ball of orange light appeared in front of him. Naruto was to say the least scared out of his mind. He slowly and cautiously followed the light, fearing what might happen if he didn't. He was also curious what the voice meant about giving him power for revenge.

The light led him through what seemed to be the maze of a sewer and into a a very large room. Naruto couldn't see the opposite end of the room, because it was covered in darkness, but there was a very large set of bars between him and where the darkness began.

 **"It's good to finally meet you, Naruto"** said the voice from before, but this time Naruto could tell that the voice was coming from the dark part of the room. "W-who are you? A-and how do you know my name?" He managed to stutter.

A pair of VERY large, glowing red eyes appeared in the darkness. **"So you really don't know, huh? There's so much about you that you don't know. What's inside you. Your potential, your clan... Your parents. It figures that the Hokage wouldn't tell you."**

"There's no way Jiji would hide that from me!" Naruto exclaimed 'Or would he...?'

The shadows began to disappear and now standing before Naruto revealing the gargantuan form of the Kyuubi with a sinister grin on it's face. **"Your own thoughts betray you... You know what I'm saying to be true. Luckily, I can provide you with the answers you've sought your entire existence. You can probably tell by now who I am. Who you contain. But what about your clan, The Uzumaki? Or your parents?"**

Naruto was shocked to say the least. Not only had he discovered today that he contained the Kyuubi no Kitsune. But that his grandfather figure, the only person to care for Naruto, had been lying to him his entire life.

He was so angry. His eyes began to flash red. He felt so betrayed. Claws started forming where his nails were. He wanted the truth, for once in his life. A crimson aura began to wrap itself around Naruto. "What do I have to do for these answers?" Naruto asked in a tone full of barely contained rage.

 **"Do you see the seal on the door? There's a part of it stopping me from channeling my power and thoughts to you. Tear it off, but be careful. If you tear the wrong part it could be the end for both of us."** The Kyuubi said. _ **'Damn that Yondaime Hokage, the Shiki Fujin bound our souls together... Oh well, I guess I'll just have to corrupt his son. Once he tears off that part of the seal nothing will stop me from entering his mind at any time I want.'**_ Kurama thought to herself with her sinister grin still showing through.

Naruto slowly began walking towards the seal. With each and every step, his inner turmoil climaxed until he finally reached it. Kurama had channeled her chakra into the part of the seal she wanted removed. He placed his hand over it and began to tear. When it was ripped off, Kurama immediately began channeling her chakra into Naruto. **"I'm going to have to take over for a little bit Naruto. You'll get your answers when we get out of this. I promise on my honor as the strongest of the Bijuu."**

 **"** Thank you... kyuubi." Naruto said as he began to slip into unconciousness. **"There's no need to thank me Naru-chan. You can just call me Kurama for now. Get some rest, while I kill all the pathetic humans who dare attack my container."** Kurama said in a very motherly, very caring tone. After that Naruto promptly passed out.

 _Real World_

 _Konoha Alleyway_

An explosion of demonic chakra blew away everything not nailed to the ground within a one-hundred foot radius of Naruto. Even some of the buildings shook at their foundations. The KI that the once innocent boy was eminating extended over all of single person in the mob that had previously been mauling the boy was either missing multiple limbs or suffocating under the KI that he was spreading.

He was coated in demonic chakra. Kurama decided that she would take the boy away from the village and into her den on the boarder of Hi no kuni and Kaze no kuni. The posessed Naruto got on all fours as demonic chakra was focused into his arms and legs.

Moving at speeds that would otherwise be impossible for any Jounin, let alone an eight year old child to achieve, he was out of the village within two minutes. Any ninja brave enough to try and stop them was immediately cut down by Kurama.

 _Three minutes later_

Sarutobi Hiruzen had seen many a disgusting slaughter during his shinobi career. And this most certainly qualified as a massacre. There was blood everywhere. Not to mention the missing arms and legs that were laying about in the alley. The chuunin that first arrived on the scene was still vomiting all over himself.

Out of all seventy three people in the alley, seventy two of them were dead. An anbu found a sole survivor amongst the carnage. He was a civilian man in his mid thirties, missing his right arm from the elbow up, and his left leg from the knee down.

"Where did he go?!" Yelled a very angry and worried Hiruzen.

"H-he. He ran towards the-cough- the gate-cough cough- the damn demon..." The civilian spoke with what little life force he had left before he died of blood loss.

'This is bad...' Hiruzen thought to himself. "We have to find him! Tori! Go get Kakashi and Tsume, we need to pick up his trail. Now! Neko, get Tenzo and tell him to meet with the tracking team at the gate as soon as possible! You will accompany the tracking team once it's assembled and provide combat support for this mission." Hiruzen said with conviction, even though he was wrought with grief over what had just occured. "Ha!" was the only reply the Anbu gave before disappearing into the night.

 **Hope you guys liked the first chapter! Be sure to leave a review, I'd love to get some feedback and answer some questions. :P**

 **See ya! -Howl's Curse**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi guys! I don't really have an update schedule, but i'll try to update every couple of days. Let me know what you think! Also, as a side note, Naruto won't go totally insane. I personally think those can get out of hand. I also try to avoid unnecessary character deaths, it just seems like a waste of usable content. I'm still conflicted on a pairing for Naruto. We'll see where it goes. xD**

Kakashi, Tsume, Tenzo (Yamato), Tori and Neko can be seen running through the forest outside of Konoha. The trail was easy enought to follow, considering that the remnants of the Kyuubi's chakra was probably the easiest thing to identify in the entirety of the elemental nations.

The problem didn't lie in tracking Naruto. The problem was gaining ground on him, they'd been moving at full speed towards Naruto for upwards of two hours now, they'd almost reached the boarder of Hi no Kuni and Ame no Kuni . The boy only had a fifteen minute headstart at best, they should've caught up to him an hour ago, but they weren't even in Tori's considerable sensor range.

Then, another explosion of demonic chakra coming from about a mile east of their position. They ran as quickly as they could in that direction. A few moments later Tori spoke, "I can sense the Kyuubi's chakra for sure, but there are two more chakra signatures... One is almost as large as Naruto's right now. The other... No... It's Uchiha Izumi."

At that Kakashi spoke. "The least we can do is try and complete the mission, if things get messy then we'll get out, but for now we need to get to Naruto. We can't let the kyuubi fall into the wrong hands." The rest of the team seemed nervous, everyone on the team has seen what Izumi can do in combat. But they weren't about to run away without at least trying to get the village's greatest asset back, so they continued on, full speed ahead.

 _Meanwhile_

 _Forest clearing. Border of Hi no Kuni and Ame no Kuni._

"Izumi-chan! You can step in any time you want!" Said an overwhelmed Kisami as she tried to keep the six-tailed kyubified Naruto off of her. Samehada had tried to absorb his chakra, but if the living sword had absorbed any more chakra it threatened to explode, rendering it semi-useless.

And now she was being pushed back by a boy no older than eight. 'If I could use more powerful jutsu this wouldn't be a problem, but Pein wants him back alive...' Kisami thought to herself with a bit of pent up rage as she kept dodging the jinchuuriki's blows.

Izumi looked at the scene with an amused smirk. It was a good reminder for Kisami that they needed to work together and that she can't run into every battle head first. As soon as she sensed the approaching Konoha ninja, however. She knew the time for amusement had come to an end. She approached the fight and activated her Sharingan. At this, so much demonic chakra flowed into Naruto's body. **'UCHIHA! NOT AGAIN!'** Kurama thought to herself. The rage of the kyuubi could be felt all over Ame and Hi no Kuni, as a seventh and eighth tail formed on the kyubified form of Naruto, and dashed at Izumi. "Tsukuyomi!" Izumi said calmly.

The claw of the kyuubified Naruto stopped an inch from her face. **'No! Naruto!'** Kurama thought to herself as her power focibly receded.

 _Inside Tsukuyomi_

Izumi looked upon the unconcious form of Naruto strapped to a torture table. She looked across the genjutsu world to see the absolutely livid form of Kurama giving her a death glare fit for the shinigami himself. **"UCHIHA! What do you want with Naruto!?"** She screamed angrily. Izumi walked over to Naruto.

"You already know what I want with him. He's more important than he could ever know." Izumi said while gently rubbing his cheek, much to the anger of Kurama. **"Get your hands off of him, you bitch!"** She said while banging against her cage.

Izumi just giggled lightly. "In here, I have the power. And I'm going to use that power to ensure that he's loyal to me." She finished with an evil smirk. If the cage that Kurama was trapped in was made of real metal, her anger alone would've melted the bars, and her chakra would've vaporized it.

At this Naruto began to stir in his sleep. **"NARUTO DON'T LET HER-"** Kurama was cut off by Izumi making her voice silent, and positioned her behind the torture table, so Naruto could not see her.

After a few seconds, Naruto awoke. "K-Kurama?" The boy said weakly. He couldn't see much. His head was strapped in place so he couldn't look around to see where he was. 'Ji- no the hokage must have stopped Kurama before we could escape...' Naruto thought to himself as he closed his eyes. He took a deep breath and reopened his eyes. When he did, he was greeted with the sight of mobs of people, people he remembered seeing in Konoha. Mostly bad people... but others like Sakura, and even some of his other classmates were among the crowd, all dorning looks of hate.

"Burn the demon!" 'Teuchi' screamed with sadistic glee. The mob was happy to oblige. For the next, what felt like years but was really seventy one hours inside Tsukuyomi, Naruto was tortured in all of the most painful ways imaginable. Kurama was forced to watch as her container, someone that she had come to care for, one of the VERY few humans she could say that about, was tortured non-stop. He was branded, burned, cut open, mutilated and beat up until it was impossible to tell that the thing under the blood, bruises and gashes was actually an eight year old boy. She screamed and screamed but no sound came out.

Naruto had taken quite a lot of pain over the course of his short life. But this was on a completely new level of hurt. After seventy one hours of this hell Naruto was ready to give into the pain, to give in to their taunts. But just as the thought entered his mind, a raven-haired woman leapt into the mob that had been torturing him for so long and began mowing them down, either cutting them up with her ninjato or burning them to ashes with Katon jutsu. When she was finished and all of his tormentors were finally dead or running for their lives, he tried to focus on his 'savior'.

'She's beautiful' Naruto thought to himself as he began to lose conciousness again. Izumi, acting the part undid his restraints and picked him up bridal style. She looked at him and said, "Don't worry, we won't let the kyuubi trick you, or this rabble hurt you ever again."

That was the last thing Naruto heard before blacking out again. Itachi gave Kurama a victorious, taunting smirk. Kurama just snarled, **'I WILL SAVE NARUTO, AND I WILL MAKE SURE SHE DIES THE MOST PAINFUL DEATH IMAGINABLE'** Kurama seethed in anger.

 _Back in the forest clearing_.

Naruto began to fall forwards into Izumi, his cloak of demonic chakra completely gone now. She caught him and just like in the genjutsu picked him up bridal style. "Come on Kisami, we have uninvited guests." As she said this, the Konoha tracker team landed in the clearing, a good thirty meters away from the Akatsuki duo and Naruto.

"Izumi let him go now!" Kakashi demanded. "I don't take orders from you anymore Kakashi-taichou." Was Izumi's curt response.

Kakashi got into a fighting stance. He couldn't use ninjutsu for fear of hurting Naruto, and Izumi outclassed him in genjutsu. Taijutsu was also a no, considering that getting close to Izumi meant getting within range of her genjutsu.

He ran through every possible scenario in his head, and they all ended badly. 'Damn it!' Kakashi grimaced behind his mask.

Kisami quickly collected Samehada, and just before they sunshined out of the clearing, Izumi said, "You can tell the Hokage that he's mine now. Don't come looking for him, It's a waste of time and lives." With that, they disappeared into the night.

 **That's it for chapter 2 guys! Hope you enjoyed. Once again I love any and all I'll try to keep updates at around 1.5K words a chapter.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hi guys! I hope you enjoy chapter three!**

 _Ame no Kuni, 5 miles outside of Amegakure_

After crossing the Hi-Ame border, Izumi and Kisami slowed down considerably. They didn't have to run anymore, and they were both a bit exaughsted. Kisami from wrestling with Naruto, and Izumi from having to use three times the chakra in order for the Tsukuyomi to have the effect that it did. Besides, the Konoha ninja wouldn't step foot in Ame no Kuni, for fear of starting another war.

"Izumi-chan, why would Pein send us after him if we can't extract his Bijuu yet?" Kisami asked. "I don't know, It's not my place to question that man... However, If we play our cards right, we may just gain a powerful ally in the years to come." Izumi said, motioning towards Naruto.

"The gaki? Why would he help us? Especially when we're hunting the other Jinchuuriki." Izumi just smirked at her. "He wants to watch Konoha burn, that and he believes Kyuubi betrayed him. We can supply him with a way to get revenge on Konoha and on the Kyuubi. Why wouldn't he be willing to join us?"

Kisami nodded. What she was saying made sense, most Jinchuuriki aren't treated well by their villages, and often blame their Bijuu for being treated the way they are. It would be interesting to see the results of what Izumi had planned "We're almost back to Amegakure, let's inform Pein of our sucess," Izumi said monotonously. with that, they continued walking towards Amegakure, unaware of what was going on inside Naruto's mindscape.

 _Naruto's Mindscape_

Naruto lay unconcious in the sewer that was his mind. Today had been a very long and painful day for him. So many negative emotions all in such a short time. Hate, pain, betrayal.

Above him sat the human form of Kurama. She had long crimson hair that flowed from the top of her head to just above her knees. Her eyes were glowing crimson, the hate for Konoha and more importantly, the hate for the Uchiha that had just tortured the young boy laying on the ground in front of her. The only human she had ever cared about. She wasn't going to take this lying down. Ever since the seal had been ripped, she could wander about Naruto's mind freely.

She could see his memories and how he felt during them. Most of them were bad, but there were a few good ones. The only ones worth remembering were the few that the boy had made with Teuchi and Ayame, she would have to find a way to thank them in the future, but for now she needed to focus on keeping the Uchiha's influence away from the young boy laying on the ground in front of her.

 **'Come on Kurama! Think!'** Kurama thought to herself. **'For all of the centuries of knowledge I've collected I must have seen something, somewhere that can help me now.'** She began going through her memories starting from the more recent ones. The longer she tried to recall something the less hopeful she became. She didn't remember much from when the Sage of the Six Paths was still around, and she'd checked every other part of her memories.

Kurama took a deep breath and focused as hard as she could. Five minutes pass, nothing. Ten minutes, nothing. Twenty, no luck. After an hour, she was about to give up. **'No! I can't let that bitch manipulate Naruto!'** She kept going, deeper and deeper into her memories.

...

 **'I've got it!'** Kurama thought, relieved that she found something. It was a meditation technique that the Sage of the Six Paths used to train himself. It couldn't be interupted, unless thousands upon thousands of people were dying, and created a protective bubble that made it was impossible to penetrate. The technique transported the user to their mindscape so they could train undisturbed, for the equivalent of fifty years in the real world. It was called Ten no Meiso. (Heavenly Meditation)

She vaguely remembered the rest of the ins and outs of the technique, it required a lot of handseals, and put a lot of strain on the body. But, if anyone could handle it, even at such a young age, it was Naruto. She had to wait until there was an opportunity to take control again and use it. She needed Naruto to be in a secluded area, away from anyone that could interrupt her, for a decent amount of time. Most importantly however, she only had one shot.

For now she needed to play the waiting game, as much as it killed her, she couldn't speak to Naruto. He probably trusted the Uchiha more than her right now. A fact that made her ever more outraged with the Uchiha. But if she wanted to win in the long run, she'd need to concede to her... For now.

 _Amegakure_

 _Akatsuki Hideout_

Izumi laid Naruto on a bed in her living quarters and pulled the thin sheets up over Naruto's shoulders. She touched his cheek, he was still warm despite everything he'd been through. She activated her Sharingan and looked at his chakra levels. He already had enough chakra to put most chunin to shame. At the age of eight! 'He's got so much potential. He could become just as powerful, if not, more powerful than Pein! He's as good as mine!' Izumi thought to herself with a giddy expression on her face.

She left the room, locked the door behind her and headed towards Pein's chambers. There she met up with Kisami and they gave their report. "Leader-sama" Itachi began, "I believe I can make use of the boy, even if we can't extract his Bijuu right now."

At this Pein seemed intrigued, "What did you have in mind?" he said monotonously. "I want to convince him to join Akatsuki, he could most certainly use the training but he has by far the most potential out of any in his generation to become a very effective shinobi. Let me train him, and we'll have an extra tool at our disposal when the time comes," She finished with confidence in her voice.

She explained what she knew about the boy, how he'd been treated. But more importantly she told him how he was going to convince Naruto to join their organization. Pein looked at her with a blank expression. "I will think on this. When the boy wakes, I would speak to him," He said.

With that, he dismissed Kisami and Izumi. Izumi immediately went back to her quarters to check on the boy. She put her hands on the handle and turned the knob to open it. It was unlocked. She activated her Sharingan, and opened the door violently.

Inside her room, was the still sleeping Naruto, and another Akatsuki member looming above him, as if studying him. She was unnaturally pale and had long black hair. Oriko. The snake sannin. "Get away from him, or you lose your head," Izumi threatened while slowly leaking out KI.

"Ah, Izumi-chan, I see you just got back from retrieving the Kyuubi Jinchuriki. He's quite the interesting specimen isn't he? It would be a shame if all of that natural ability went to waste, wouldn't it?" Oriko said innocently, with a sinister smile.

"I'm not sure you heard me the first time. Step away from him and leave my quarters or you die!" Izumi said, angrily flaring her Mangekyo Sharingan.

"No need to get angry Izumi-chan, I was merely checking up on the newest resident of our little base," Oriko said while slowly walking towards the door, and eventually leaving the room, smiling all the while.

Izumi closed the door behind her, and placed a seal over the locking mechanism, freezing it in place. She looked again at the form of the sleeping Naruto, 'I have to keep him away from the other members of Akatsuki as much as possible, they'll mess with my plans for him.' Izumi thought to herself. She quickly got changed into sleeping attire and got in bed next to Naruto. After pulling the sheets over herself and Naruto, she wrapped her arms around Naruto and brought him close to her.

For the first time in a long time, Izumi felt like she could relax, even if the opposite was true. Naruto seemed comforted by the presence of someone who wanted to protect him. It made Izumi give a small smile before she fell asleep with the young Naruto in her arms.

In Naruto's mind, Kurama was absolutely livid, barely able to stop her chakra from entering Naruto's body. She wanted to kill her so badly. But she knew that Naruto's body needed rest, and even if it didn't Naruto would not survive against all of these 'Akatsuki' people. Their chakra signatures were gigantic. So she swallowed her anger, and began plotting how Izumi would meet her end.

 _In another part of the Akatsuki base_

Oriko was walking to her quarters, 'He'll make an excellent tool for me in the future. If Pein lets him live, that is. If I could be the one in charge of his training, I could begin to get the boy on my side. My cursed seal isn't quite ready yet, so the boy must become attached to me before anyone else. I have a feeling that Izumi isn't going to let that happen easily though...'

Her thoughts were broken when she reached her chambers. 'I wonder if he could survive being exposed to Zinrax-3. With the Kyuubi and his own natural resistance to disease, it wouldn't be a far cry to believe he could survive. This requires some expirementation on my part.' Oriko finished her thought with yet another sinster grin, before entering her room and retiring for the day.

 _Konoha_

 _Hokage's Office_

"We couldn't get to him in time Hokage-sama, mission failed." Kakashi said monotonously.

"What do you mean you couldn't get to him in time?! He surely wasn't faster than you! What happened?" Hiruzen demanded.

Kakashi cleared his throat, "We had a hard time keeping up with him, the Kyubi's chakra made him almost impossible to keep up with. By the time we caught up with him he had been knocked unconcious by Izumi Uchiha, and what looked to be Kisami Hoshigaki. They were wearing black cloaks with red clouds on them, it looked like they had joined an organiziation of some kind, but it was nothing I'd seen before... One more thing, Izumi told us to tell you that any attempt to bring him back would end in the death of whoever we sent."

"Damnit!" Hiruzen slammed his hand on the table, almost breaking it. "I have much to think on.. please leave," the Hokage said with a pained sigh.

The team left the room as the hokage looked out his window at the Hokage monument. 'I'm sorry Minato... I've failed you... But I won't let this happen again. It's time the Sandaime Hokage really stepped back into office!' Hiruzen thought with a mixture of sadness and determination to make up for his past mistakes involving Naruto, and to stop the civilian council from getting any more political power.

He would fix what he had broken, or die trying...

 **Tell me what you guys thought of the chapter, I accept praise and criticism :P**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey guys! I had a lot of free time on my hands today, so i figured I might as well spend it writing. Hope you enjoy!**

 _Akatsuki Hideout_

For the first time in his life, he felt safe. For the first time in his life he felt like he had someone there with him. It was such a warm feeling, and he never wanted it to leave. He felt the bed shift and the source of the warmth began to move away. Sensing the movement, he wrapped his arms around it and held on to it for dear life.

Izumi had just woken up, she had to report to Pein in about thirty minutes for a mission and she needed to get ready, but the young boy she had kidnapped had other ideas. She smirked, 'Things seem to be going much better than I expected, if this keeps up he'll WANT to be mine,' Izumi thought to herself.

Izumi slowly rubbed his head in an attempt to relax the boy so she could go get ready. He slowly released his grip on her, and Izumi got up. She covered him with the blanket and got ready. She'd need to find someone that stayed at the base to watch him. Especially considering that Oriko almost never went out on missions, and spent almost all of her time in the Akatsuki base.

The thought of Oriko getting to Naruto before her was not a pleasant one. She most certainly needed to find someone who could keep her away from him. She couldn't ask Pein, and the only other people at the base on a regular basis were Zetsu, Sasori and Konan. Zetsu had a streak of eating young children in their sleep, so that was certainly a no. Sasori was more interested in his puppets and probably wouldn't even give her the time of day to ask. That left Konan. While Izumi's relationship with her wasn't on a friend to friend basis, they still generally got along.

She undid the seal on her door and opened it. She looked around and left her room, sealing the door behind her, this time with a locking seal that could only be opened using the correct seal pattern.

She found Konan easily enough, she was looking out one of the windows that gave a good view of Amegakure. Rain poored down, for what must have been the tenth hour on end. "Konan, if you could, can you watch the kyuubi Jinchuriki while I'm out performing missions today? I don't want him waking up and either trying to escape or being locked in a room until I get back." She looked at Izumi for a second, she wasn't thrilled to be the Akatsuki babysitter, but it beat just doing Akatsuki's paperwork, It'd be a good change of pace."Sure I'll watch him," She said in a 'Why not?' tone. "Alright, here's a copy of the key for the locking seal i put on the door to keep him in my room." Izumi said while handing Konan a small piece of paper. "Oh, and one more thing, send me a message if he wakes up while I'm gone. It's important that I'm there shortly after he wakes." Konan nodded, she felt that what Izumi was asking of her was important in making Naruto loyal to them. But she couldn't tell whether Izumi wanted Naruto to be loyal to Akatsuki... or herself. They both went their seperate ways.

 _Mindscape_

Kurama was concentrating, trying to sense all of the Akatsuki presences so she could Identify them approaching Naruto, so she knew when they were in a secluded place. She felt confident that she could sense most of them, except one. Sporratically appearing in places and then jus, 'poof' gone. It was becoming quite a nuisance, she would never be able to tell if she and Naruto were truly alone until she could find a way to track this presence. She stopped when she sensed someone outside the door.

 _Akatsuki Hideout_

Konan was just about to unlock the door, but for some reason she felt watched. By multiple presences. So she used her cloak to block the view of the lock for everyone exceot her, then she used the 'key' to enter the room, closing the door behind her.

 _3 hours later_

Naruto began to stir, and Konan took notice. She willed her paperwork away, and walked over beside the bed.

Naruto groaned, as he opened his eyes. His body was still very sore from all the pain he'd been through ever since he let Kurama channel her chakra into his body. Part of him hoped that what had happened had all been a dream, but that was totally crushed when he opened his eyes. There was a dim light coming from the ceiling, but even that blurred his vision quite a bit. He looked around, vision still blurry, and saw a figure in a cloak similar to his savior, but he knew that this person wasn't her. He rubbed his eyes and focused his vision. He looked at the woman, who was currently scanning him, "W-where am I? Who are you?" Naruto asked this cautiously.

"You are in the Akatsuki headquarters, one of our members brought you here, as for who I am, my name is Konan, Naruto." Konan replied. " Naruto looked puzzled, "Akatsuki? I've never heard of you guys before... And how do you know my name?" Naruto said with suspicion clear in his voice. "The only people that even know we exist right now are In Ame no kuni, where we are now. We've been watching you for some time now Naruto."

At this Naruto was suprised. He'd heard of Amegakure before, but only bad things. "Whatching me... Why?" There was an awkward silence, "That will become clear soon enough," naruto was not satisfied with this answer, but for now he'd accept it.

"You said someone brought me here from Konoha right? Can I see her?" He asked. "Yes, and as a matter of fact, I'm writing her a message right now, she'll be here shortly," Konan said while writing down on a message down on a piece of paper. Naruto looked puzzled. "You're going to write her a letter? Don't those usually take weeks to deliver?"

Konan giggled a little bit as she finished up her message to Izumi, "By normal means yes, but watch this," Konan said as she opened the small window in Itachi's quarters. The paper folded into a small paper butterfly and flew out the window. Naruto looked absolutely amazed. "That was so cool! How did you do that?" he asked with amazement. "It's one of my abilities as a ninja," She said calmly. "I've been training to become ninja, but I didn't even know that was possible!" Naruto said, excitement clear in his voice. "Ji- The Hokage used to tell me how some ninja are born with abilities called bloodlines that only they can use. Is that a bloodline?" The excitement from before was gone, and replaced by a hint of pain, but the curiousity from before was still there. 'This boy has seen much, Pein may just let him join after all.' Konan thought to herself. "I'm pretty sure it is, I haven't seen anyone else use it, and I've had it since I was a little girl." Konan answered his question. Naruto seemed to look disappointed at that. "But, if you play your cards right, you can join Akatsuki, and then we can train you to become a strong ninja." Konan said.

Naruto gave her a smile, he's wanted to be a ninja for as long as he could remember, but all of his work in Konoha seemed to be sabotaged. Maybe here he could become truly strong. Besides, Konan had been nicer to him in the five minutes they've talked to eachother than every person in Konoha combined. Maybe staying here wasn't such a bad idea. But he wasn't totally sold yet, he hadn't even seen outside of this room yet, let alone the other people in the group. On top of that, Konan could easily be nice to him and have not so nice intentions. It happened a lot in Konoha, he thought he could trust people that were nice to him, and they ended up selling him out to the angry mobs or even joining the angry mobs. He needed to be sure that these people weren't going to hurt him.

Kurama read the thoughts of her container, **'I'm going to kill that bitch too, she's almost as bad as the Uchiha! Trying to manipulate Naruto, trying to make him believe he needs anyone to care for him except me...'**

There was a click, and the door to the room had opened Izumi walked in and saw Naruto wearing his tattered clothes looking at her, she gave him a light smile. "Ah, Naruto, this is Izumi, the one who brought you here. I have some work to attend to. I assume Kisami is capable of giving your mission report to Pein, Izumi, so why don't you two talk for a bit" Konan said as she walked out of the room.

Naruto looked at Izumi nervously. He put his hands at his sides and bowed to Izumi, "Thank you so much for saving me... I thought they were going to kill me... Thank you for getting me out of Konoha..." Naruto said, as all of his painful memories in Konoha came back to him. He was on the verge of breaking down. He never had time to really think about what happened.

Izumi walked over to him, knelt down, and embraced him in a hug. "Only the worst scum on the Earth should have to suffer like you have, not an innocent young boy. We've wanted to get you here for a long time, but only now did the opportunity present itself. I'm sorry for everything they've done to you, and I promise we will make them pay for what they've done, together," She said softly and with care. This absolutely blew Naruto out of the water, never, in his life had he not only been given a real hug. But no one had ever cared enough about what happened to him to do something about it. He felt something he'd never felt before. True happiness, something he'd longed for his entire life. He started crying tears of joy, and buried his head in her shoulder.

At this point, Kurama seethed, planning the different ways she would kill her. **'THAT SHOULD BE ME, NOT HER! I'VE ALWAYS BEEN THERE FOR NARUTO! DAMN UCHIHA!'** Her barely contained rage threatening to send demonic chakra into Naruto's system.

The two stayed there for a while, Naruto didn't want to pull away, but he knew they had other things to talk about. All he wanted right now was to experience that feeling again, he wanted to be around Izumi. "So Naruto, have you decided whether or not you want to join Akatsuki?" Izumi asked.

Naruto didn't even have to think about his response, all previous caution was gone. "Yes."

 **What'd you guys think? Leave a review, criticisms, praise, anything. I'm still stumped on a pairing for this one, it might take me a bit. I don't really want to do a Harem, but I am very indecisive.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hi again guys! Here's chapter five of Struggle for Sanity. Hope you enjoy! :)**

 _Akatsuki Hideout_

Naruto didn't even have to think about his response, all previous caution was gone. "Yes."

Izumi gave him a small smile, 'Well that's half of the challenge, now we have to convice Pein to let him live.' She thought to herself.

"Alright, then it's settled, now we have to go talk to the Akatsuki leader. I don't think I need to tell you to be respectful and speak only when spoken to, right?" Izumi said as she stood up.

Naruto nodded, and followed Izumi through the Akatsuki base. As he walked with her, he saw many people in the hallway. By far the coolest one he saw was a man with a scratched out Takigakure headband. He was wearing a mask that covered the lower half of his face, that in combination with the Akatsuki cloak made him look like a badass. Said badass caught Naruto looking at him, and shot him a curious glance. Naruto immediately grabbed on to Izumi's cloak and looked the other way.

When they finally reached the leader's chambers, Naruto was a bit nervous, but he was determined to join Akatsuki, and shook it off. The door opened and they walked inside. Standing in the middle of the large room was one man in an Akatsuki cloak, you could see his pointed orange hair from behind. He turned around, his Rinnegan seemingly pierced Naruto's soul.

Once again Naruto was scared, but he didn't let that deter him. He shook off his fears and doubts once again.

"So... You are the one that Izumi brought back from Konoha... The Kyuubi Jinchuriki. I am Pein, leader of the Akatsuki. What is your name?" He asked in his regular monotonous voice, which creeped Naruto out a bit.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki." At this Pein gave a curious glance. 'An Uzumaki... I should've suspected that with all of his chakra' Pein thought to himself.

"I hear that Konoha has put you through much. You of all people should know that places like Konoha absolutely reak of corruption and pain. So tell me, how would you fix the problem that is Konoha?" He asked inquisitively.

"I would make them feel the same pain they showed me. They lied to me, tortured me. They would've killed me, had they gotten the chance. Why should I treat them any differently than they treated me?" Naruto asked rhetorically.

At this Pein seemed pleased. "And what of the other major ninja villages, Suna, Kumo, Iwa, Kiri. How would you solve their corruption?"

"The same way I would with Konoha, if they think that they can cause so much suffering and not expect retribution, then they have another thing coming," Again, Pein seemed pleased. "And how far would you go to see them burn?"

"To the ends of the Earth, I would do anything to show them my retribution," Naruto said with no hesitation, and with hate clear in his voice.

Pein looked to Izumi, "Get him a cloak, You will teach him chakra control and basic taijutsu, along with shuriken and kunai techniques. After that, you will teach him advanced taijutsu and Oriko will teach him Ninjutsu. You are dismissed." Pein said.

'Damn! I'll have to keep him away from Oriko for as long as possible.' Izumi growled in her mind. This may prove to be a problem in the future, but she knew it was futile trying to argue with Pein.

With that, Naruto and Izumi left his chambers. "Yes! Izumi, I passed!" Naruto said happily. Izumi bent down a little bit and ruffled his hair. "Come on Naruto, we have to get you fitted for some new clothes," Izumi said.

 _3 hours later_

Naruto returned to the Akatsuki base looking like a new person. They had visited a bathhouse so Naruto could clean himself up, his once mudded down hair now stood up and shone a bright golden color.

He was also wearing new clothes, standard ninja gear along with black ninja sandals. His cloak fit him perfectly, covering the rest of his clothes hiding a small portion of his face. At this point it was almost sunset, so Izumi gave him a crash course on chakra and gave him some taijutsu scrolls to look at tomorrow in the Akatsuki training room, when she was out on her missions.

"Where am I going to be living? Do i get my own place?" Naruto asked curiously. Izumi chuckled and said, "You'll be staying in my quarters, seeing as the base doesn't have any more spare rooms."

"Oh. Okay. Where am I going to sleep then? your room only has one bed right?" Naruto said. "You'll be sleeping with me, in my bed." Izumi said casually. "Oh... well I've never shared a bed with anyone before." Naruto said, slightly embarassed. "That's okay, we slept in the same bed last night, and you seemed to like it." Izumi said, poking a little fun at Naruto's clinginess that morning. At that Naruto seemed a little embarrased.

It took them another minute or so to get to Izumi's room. 'I'm suprised Oriko hasn't tried something yet' Izumi thought to herself as she unlocked the seal and opened the door. The two walked in, and Naruto closed the door behind them.

"I'm tired, I'm going to go to sleep Izumi." Naruto said mid-yawn. "Okay, I'll be there shortly, you go ahead and get in bed, I've got some thigns to take care of first."

Naruto quickly took off his cloak and ninja garb, he then crawled in bed and pulled the blanket over himself. Meanwhile, Itachi was putting locking seals on the windows in her room, and putting reinforcement seals on the vents in her room. She then quickly took off her cloak and ninja clothing and got in bed next to Naruto and wrapped her arms around him.

At first, Naruto was suprised, he wasn't used to so much contact that didn't involve pain. But Naruto was really liking it, It made him feel safe and cared for. Naruto slowly began to drift off to sleep."Goodnight Izumi Onee-chan" Naruto said before falling asleep. Izumi smirked madly, her plan was working, and if it continued then she could finally have what she wanted.

 **'UCHIHA! I WILL MAKE YOU EXPERIENCE THE MOST PAINFUL DEATH IMAGINABLE. I WILL DESTROY YOU!'**

 _Six months later_

After a lot of hard work and pointers from Izumi, Naruto's chakra levels increased from mid Chunin, to being able to rival Kisami's reserves. She wasn't called the zero tailed beast for nothing. His taijutsu, thanks to Izumi had become that of a mid chuunin. This included his speed and the strength behind his blows. He quickly became adept at wielding shuriken and kunai, but the hardest thing for him to master was his chakra. That didn't stop him from succeeding however, he mastered every chakra control excercise thrown his way, from sticking a leaf to his head using chakra, to walking on water.

During his many months in Akatsuki, he'd spent most of his time in the base training with Izumi, but he'd spoken to most of the other members of Akatsuki. Sasori and Zetsu being the only exceptions. Izumi didn't like it when he was around Oriko, so he tried to stay away from her, even though he personally had no problem with the snake sannin. She even oversaw his training when Izumi was away on longer missions.

At first he'd been scared to talk to Kakuzu and his partner Hikari. Kakuzu seemed not to care about him much, but was still willing to speak to the boy. Hikari on the other had was a whole other story. The jashinist, as she proclaimed herself, was rumored to be very sadistic and foul whenever she was out on missions. But whenever he was present, she was on super nice, she even made him gifts from time to time. His favorite was the necklace she gave him back when he first joined, made from the bones of something or other.

He hadn't seen Pein much, as he wasn't being assigned missions yet. But he would do an occasional favor for Konan, and had come to see her as another older sister figure.

Kisami was almost always glaring at the boy, giving him mean looks or teasing him, calling him weak. Izumi would almost always stopped her, either through words or by using her 'Eyes of death no Jutsu' as Naruto started to call it. It was when Izumi gave someone a glare that could only the shinigami could imitate.

Then there was Deidara, by far he was the one that Naruto felt safest around, except with Izumi. Deidara had been almost like an older brother to Naruto. He was amazed that he could create such amazing things with his clay, not only that, but they acted like they were alive! Deidara had told him that he could make them explode, but Naruto had never been able to see it before. In the end, Deidara was happy that someone finally appreciated his art and the boy grew on him.

Kurama had not spoken to him since he left Konoha, and she had only become more jealous and angry at Izumi. It was really effecting her mental state, the only reason she had not unleashed all of her chakra into Naruto and tried to kill Izumi was that it would lead to the boy's untimely demise, and that was the last thing that she wanted.

Naruto was excited for today, because he finally got to start his ninjutsu training with Oriko today. Izumi however, was not so pleased. She'd tried to convince Pein to let her train him in ninjutsu too, but Pein shut her down immediately and said that he needed to start making connections to the rest of Akatsuki.

He got out of bed, Izumi having already left for her daily missions, and got ready for the day. He put on his ninja gear and cloak, had a meager breakfast, and left for the Akatsuki training room.

He entered the training room quietly and saw Oriko leaning up against one of the walls of the room, waiting for him. "So, Naruto-kun. Before we start your training there are a few things I need to know first. What was the most recent chakra control excercise Izumi had you do?" She asked.

"She had me do the water walking technique," Naruto replied softly. "I see. Well, then there's only one more thing." She said, carefully pulling out a small piece of paper. "This will help us determine what your chakra affinity is. I assume Izumi already explained that this paper will tell you what chakra elements will come to you the easiest?" She asked. 'This paper is coated with Zinrax-3, it's a good thing one of the ten-thousand test subjects became immune to it.. Let's see if Naruto can survive it. The preliminary tests say that he should, but I'd like to be sure.'

Naruto grabbed the paper, and immediately Kurama sensed something dangerous had entered his body. **'So now they try to kill him, huh? I don't think so.'** she said while channeling a minute amount of her chakra to enhance the boy's already godlike immune system to combat this foreign substance. In a matter of seconds, the boy's immune system had not only purged the worlds deadliest disease, known for killing in minutes, from his body, but also created anti-bodies and became immune to it.

Oriko was suprised, her calculations had been incorrect, the Kyuubi's chakra was more potent than she had expected. 'I now see why Izumi tried to keep me away from him, not only will he make the perfect tool, but he'd also make the perfect test subject,' Oriko thought to herself as she gave an internal grin.

Meanwhile, Naruto sent his chakra through the paper. It sliced in half, and then half of it lit on fire. 'Whoah! I have two affinities!' Naruto thought to himself happily. "Perfect, those are my two affinities as well, your training will prove fruitful under me." Oriko said with a small smile on her face.

Oriko bent down and picked up the other half of the chakra paper, that was currently on the floor, and placed it in a vial in her pocket. "Now, let's get started," Oriko said, Naruto nodded confidently.

 _7 hours later_

Naruto was exaughsted, but he was very, very happy. Oriko had taught him the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, and explained that it could exponentially increase the progress he made while training. It only took Naruto an hour to master it. When Oriko said it would increase his progress, she wasn't lying. The evidence was in the results, he had already mastered the wind and fire manipulation techniques, so he could start working on other jutsu the next day. With Oriko's familiarity with the wind and fire elements , she had a very easy time explaining how to accomplish the manipulation techniques.

Oriko stood before a panting and kneeling Naruto and was absolutely mind blown. 'This boy is Insane, he made one hundred shadow clones and learned two elemental maniplation techniques in less than a day! I can see why Izumi tried to keep him to herself. When I perfect the cursed seal, I will take him and leave this place. It's a shame that I won't be able to take Izumi's eyes, but this boy has the potential to become nuch more valuable than even the Sharingan!'

"Good work today Naruto-kun, that's more than enough for today. Periodically dispel your clones twenty at a time, you'll see why when you start. We'll meet here tomorrow, okay?" Oriko said, very much pleased with his progress.

Naruto nodded and stood up and dispelled twenty of his clones. Their memories coming back to him instantly. It made his head hurt, and he began to feel dizzy. In his haste, he dispelled another twenty clones almost immediately after. The pain was unbearable and his vision began to blur. He would've fallen on the ground had Oriko not caught him.

"I told you to wait a little bit in between otherwise that will happen." Oriko said in a sarcastic tone. Naruto slowly stood back up, "Sorry about that." Naruto apologized, slightly embarrased. He dispelled the rest of his clones over the course of the next hour.

After the last of the clones dispelled, Naruto's eyes grew heavy, he was having a hard time standing. His vision went black, and he passed out. Oriko caught him again, before he could hit the ground. She looked at his unconcious form for a little bit. 'He'll make a great addition to my plans.' Oriko thought to herself. She took a vial out of her cloak and filled it with some of his sweat. She then picked him up, carried him to Izumi's room, and knocked on her door.

When Izumi opened the door, she looked at Naruto's unconcious form in Oriko's arms. "I'll take him now," Izumi said while taking Naruto from Oriko, still angered by the fact that Oriko was training him in ninjutsu now. Naruto would be training with the both of them tomorrow, Oriko in the morning and Izumi in the evening.

Izumi closed the room to her quarters before Oriko could say something that would piss her off more than she already was. She took off Naruto's ninja gear and used a towel to wipe the sweat off of Naruto. She then laid him on her bed, and laid down next to him.

When she first brought Naruto to Akatsuki, she thought of him as no more than a tool. But as time progressed he slowly started growing on her, she was glad he thought of her as his older sister. She was glad that he always wanted to be around her and make her happy. She began to care more about him, and less about what the consequences meant to her.

She wrapped her arms around him and fell asleep.

 _Meanwhile_

Oriko was studying the chakra paper from earlier. Her eyes widened, and she immediately put it back in the vial it came in. 'The Zinrax-3 merged with his chakra and mutated! This requires more testing!' She thought to herself with a maniacal grin, followed by an even more maniacal laugh.

 **Okay ladies and gentlemen, leave a review and tell me what you thought of the chapter! Praise, criticism, anything! Also, there will be another time skip in the next chapter.**

 **See you then! -Howl's Curse**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello again readers! Here's the next chapter and my first take at a fight scene in Naruto!**

8 _months later_

Naruto's training had gone absurdly well since Oriko had shown him the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. He had a ninjustu suite of multiple Katon and Futon jutsu, and had even mastered a few Doton and Suiton jutsu. His taijutsu was on par with Elite Jonin. The only thing stopping him from being able to hold his own against the other members of Akatsuki, was that he had no trump card, so he began attempting to create his own jutsu.

Naruto had gone on a few very easy missions. Mostly killing bandits or premature rebellions. Naruto didn't enjoy killing, but he showed no mercy to the people that would threaten Akatsuki. He'd only grown closer to the other members of Akatsuki.

His relationship with Oriko was strange. She would often show compassion to the boy, but Izumi would always tell him never to trust her. So he was conflicted as to whether he should get closer to his sensei or not.

He only got closer to Deidara, although they'd been having arguments about what was prettier, explosions or Konan's paper art. You can guess which side each person took.

Kakuzu was still indifferent towards the boy, and Sasori hadn't even taken the time to talk to the boy in his entire time in Akatsuki. He'd heard about Zetsu, but Izumi said he should stay away from him.

Hikari was still super nice to him, and would even try to protect him from Kisami's constant teasing, and was very much so afraid of getting on her bad side. He'd seen how mean and vulgar she could be to people she didn't like... Kisami in particular. She still made him gifts made out of bones too. Naruto thought they looked cool, but Izumi didn't like it when he wore them, so he just stuck to the necklace she gave him a while back.

Kurama was not doing so well. She wanted to put her plan into action, but the opportunity never presented itself. Her jealousy and rage continued to consume her, and she was about to snap.

Today was a day, just like any other. Naruto began his training with Oriko and together they were working on a new jutsu for Naruto. **"Kumiawase Jutsu: Kasai tatsumaki!"** (Combination Jutsu: Fire tornado) shouted Naruto as a small tornado enveloped a training dummy and lifted it into the air. Then the tornado lit up like a torch and roasted the dummy until it was nothing but ash. Naruto stopped the Jutsu. He was proud of himself for creating his own original jutsu, but he wanted it to do more damage. "Good work Naruto, it seems you have a knack for creating your own Jutsu. But it could use some work. Keep at it naruto." Oriko encouraged.

Just then a piece of paper flew into the training room. It was Konan. "Naruto, stop what you're doing. Get ready for a mission, we're meeting Sasori in five minutes just outside the base."

"Mission?" Naruto perked up. "What mission?"

"Apparently a group of Iwa ANBU infiltrated Amegakure and has some intel that we can't let them return to Iwa with. We're hunting them down." She said while preparing her things.

Naruto took a few minutes to get ready and met Oriko and Sasor just outside the base. They left quickly, and without a word. Oriko summoned snakes to track the Iwa team. They moved as quickly as they could, Naruto keeping pace with the S-class ninja with him.

They were running for a good three hours, and had entered Tsuchi no Kuni before they caught up to the group of ANBU who were there waiting for them up in the trees looking down on them, there were ten of them. Naruto was a bit nervous, the strongest opponents he'd fought up until this point were high chuunin at best. But he steeled his resolve.

"Well, we we're expecting some kind of hunter squad to follow us. But really? Three ninja, and one of you is barely old enough to hold a kunai." A man on the ground wearing an Iwa ninja uniform taunted. He seemed to be the leader of the ANBU squad.

At this Naruto was furious, he flashed through hand-signs faster than anyone could see. " **Katon: Karyudan no jutsu** " (Fire style: Dragon Flame Bomb)

The man barely managed to dodge the jutsu, his uniform had burn marks in several places. He then ran deeper into the forest, presumably towards his village.

Everyone in the area now knew not to underestimate the kid. The rest of the ANBU squad members jumped down from the trees and engaged the group. "Naruto, you take him, we'll deal with this rabble." Oriko said. 'It'll be interesting to see what comes of this' She thought to herself.

Naruto nodded and ran off deeper into the forest after his target. He jumped from tree to tree until he landed in a clearing. **"Doton: Doryu Kekkai"** (Earth style: Earth Fissure) naruto heard as a crack opened up in the earth beneath him. He immediately jumped backwards and looked in the direction of his target.

Naruto ran through another set of hand seals. **"Futon: Atsugai"** (Wind Style: Pressure Damage) a giant torrent of wind blew away the forest where the Iwa ninja was hiding. Naruto saw his target land just outside the range of his jutsu to his right.

He lept into the air and went through another set of handseals **"Futon: Kaze no Dangan"** (Wind style: Wind Bullets) multiple bullets of wind shot towards the Iwa ninja, who had replaced himself with a log.

"You're good gaki, I'm Tatsuya Kanashimi. Elite Jonin and personal advisor to the Sandaime Tsuchikage himself. What's your name?" The newly named Tatsuya spoke from on a tree branch, looking down on Naruto. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto. But the time for talking has been over for some time. It's time to end you." Naruto said confidently.

"Straight to the point, huh?" Tatsuya chuckled and dropped down from the tree.

The two stared at eachother for a while, neither moving a muscle. Then simultaneously started flashing through hand signs. **"Doton: Doryudan/Futon: Kaze no Ryu"** (Earth Style: Earth Dragon Bomb/Wind Style: Wind Dragon)

Tatsuya shot a dragon-like projectile at Naruto, and Naruto responded with a dragon made of wind. They clashed for a moment. Trees were blown back from the force and the two were having a hard time standing. Naruto's wind dragon quickly began to overpower the earth dragon, and pulverized it. The dragon then continued towards Tatsuya, who gave an inaudible scream as the dragon smashed into him.

Panting, Naruto put his hands on his knees. He took a moment and focused his mind. He looked up and saw the dust begin to settle. Tatsuya was standing. His clothes were ripped and he was bleeding quite a bit, but he was still moving.

 **"Yoton: Yokai no Jutsu"** (Lava Style: Melting Apparition) Tatsuya began breathing out a yellow looking fog that covered the clearing. Naruto, tried to get out of the way of the incoming gas, but some ended up touching him, resulting in multiple tears in his cloak, and a few very painful burns along his skin.

When it dissipated, Naruto saw movement out of the corner of his eye. It was Tatsuya charging him. Naruto blocked the incoming taijutsu assault, deflecting and dodging puches until Tatsuya sent a kick his way. Naruto caught his foot with both hands, causing him to slide the opposite direction a bit. He then twisted Tatsuya's foot, in turn twisteing the rest of his body, until his foe fell to the ground.

Naruto tried to press the advantage by pulling out a kunai and attempting to stab the downed ninja but Tatsuya rolled out of the way and did a backflip, landing on his feet.

The two looked at eachother once more, both panting heavily. Naruto was tired and almost out of chakra, he needed to end this. Now. He flashed through yet another set of hand signs and put all of his chakra into the jutsu, Kurama aiding him, sending him a minute amount of her chakra. **"Kumiawase Jutsu: Kasai Tatsumaki!"** At first, nothing happened, but then the wind began to pick up, faster and faster until the area surrounding Tatsuya was ensnared in a giant circle of wind.

Tatsuya began to scream as the force of the winds cut him up even further and lifted him up into the air almost a hundred feet. The winds of the now full on tornado becoming visible to everyone within miles.

If Deidara were here, his line would be, 'Katsu!' as the tornado caught fire, incinerating everything caught inside. Naruto looked in awe at his jutsu, he could feel the heat eminating from it, and was caught up in the beauty of it. 'Now I understand why Deidara-Nii always says that art is an explosion,' Naruto thought to himself.

His jutsu slowly disappeared, and Naruto fell to his knees, exhausted. Naruto heard the laughter of a familiar voice in his mind. 'Kurama!' Naruto thought to himself in fear. **"Don't be afraid Naruto-kun, I'm not here to hurt you. But I will be taking over now!"** Kurama exclaimed as she flooded Naruto's chakra coils with her own demonic chakra. 'No... Izumi...' Naruto thought to himself before being possessed by Kurama again. **'Don't worry Naruto, you'll be free from the manipulation of that Uchiha bitch.'** Kurama thought to herself.

Oriko and Sasori were dealing with the Iwa shinobi quite easily. They'd already cut down eight of them, and were moving to take out the final two, when a burst of demonic chakra cut through the forest. 'What! Naruto should have been more than strong enough to deal with his opponent without having to rely on the Kyuubi!' Oriko thought to herself.

She looked at Sasori, "I'll go get him, you handle these two." She said as she darted through the forest to Naruto. 'This could also be the perfect opportunity to get away from Akatsuki...' She thought to herself.

Meanwhile, in the clearing. Kyuubi, cast a genjutsu that made it seem as though her demonic chakra was coming from every direction. After taking control of Naruto began running deeper into Earth country, looking for a place to lay low. Moving at unbelievable speeds, she ran until she found an entrance to a cave. The Kyuubified Naruto entered the cave and went as deep into the cave as possible.

She wasted no time, and immediately began preparing the **Ten no Meisou** (Heavenly meditation). Moving through handseals faster than most trained shinobi could see. **'Hopefully, they won't be able to find us until I finish'** This was her one chance to save Naruto, she'd be able to show Naruto Izumi's lies, and finally get the recognition she wanted so desperately from Naruto.

 _With Oriko_

'Shit! Where is he!?' Oriko thought to herself as she looked at the devastation that Naruto left in his battle with Tatsuya. She could sense the demonic chakra, but she couldn't pinpoint its location. She began searching for tracks, or a clue. Something. Anything. But she never found anything.

 _With Izumi_

Izumi was in the middle of a mission in Ishi no Kuni when she felt the demonic chakra of the Kyubi. She looked out at the field of hundreds of opponents that she was being hired to kill. 'Eh, Kisami can handle this.' She thought to herself as she shunshined towards the source of the demonic chakra.

Kisami, for her part was both angry and happy. Angry that Izumi ditched her again, happy that there was a field of punching bags that she could take her anger out on, right in front of her. With that, she jumped into the field of enemies with a vicious grin on her face.

When Izumi reappeared inside of Tsuchi no Kuni, she was just as baffled as Oriko was at first, but after reaching out with her chakra. She could barely sense Naruto's chakra, but it was enough to give her a direction. She moved as quickly as possible through Tsuchi no Kuni in hopes of finding Naruto.

 _Fifty minutes later_

Izumi reached a cave that she could feel Naruto's chakra eminating from. 'He's in here!' She thought to herself relieved that she had found him. She wasted no time in entering the cave. Even with all of the cave's twists and turns, she could see the orange hue of demonic chakra, and with each step she took closer, the heavier the demonic chakra became. She ran as quickly as she could, hoping to find Naruto before anything bad could happen to him. She'd only become more obsessed with the boy as time went on. She couldn't imagine life without him. She'd been so used to seeing him everyday, holding him and watching him succeed.

Izumi turned the final corner in the cave to see a kyuubified Naruto flashing through handseals, just as she was about to intervene his hands stopped in the ram seal. **"Hahahahhaha! You're too late Uchiha! He's mine now!"** Kurama spoke through Naruto's body. Izumi rushed to Naruto. A transparent bubble of chakra began to form around Naruto as the demonic chakra receded. "I-Izumi... I'm sorry..." Naruto said weakly as he extended his hand out to hold Izumi's. She grabbed his hand and tried to pull him out of the bubble that was forming around him. "It'll be okay, I'll get you out hold on." She pulled as hard as she could, but he wasn't moving. Naruto began to fall unconscious, "Naruto, I'll get you out of there..." She began to speak as tears rolled down her cheek. "I know you will... Izumi Onee-chan..." He spoke as he lost consciousness. The bubble was almost all the way around Naruto. On instinct, she sealed some of her chakra into his body. She didn't want to let go. But the bubble forced her hand back.

"I will get you back Naruto..." Izumi spoke softly while more tears rolled down her cheeks. Naruto's body moved into a meditative position and the bubble began to levitate a few feet off of the ground.

Izumi let out an angry scream and beat against the bubble. 'Why was he outside of the base!?' Izumi asked herself angrily. 'This never should've happened. This must've been Oriko's doing!' For the first time in a long time, Izumi lost control of her emotions, and stormed out of the cave, intent on finding and questioning Oriko.

 **Thanks for reading guys! Be sure to drop your thoughts in a review. Questions, praise, criticism. Anything!**

 **I'll see you next chapter! -Howl's Curse**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey guys, I really worked my ass off on this one, it might be a day or two until I update again though, got a lot of life stuff catching up with me. Anyways, enough about me. I hope you enjoy!**

After the completion of the **Ten no Meisou** , both Naruto and Kurama entered their collective mindscape. Naruto, however was still asleep. That was a good thing for Kurama. She'd spent so long waiting for this day, and now that the time came, she had no clue what to say. Add on to the fact that she was exaughsted. Completing the meditation technique was no small feat, and took a huge chunk of chakra out of her reserves.

She mentally willed a small one room cabin to appear in the sewer that was their mindscape. She then changed the dank sewer into a peaceful forest, full of life and Nature's beauty. She picked up the unconcious Naruto and placed him on the bed inside the cabin and then mentally debated whether or not she should go to sleep as well.

On one hand, she was absolutely exaughsted. She'd been waiting so long to be able to wrap Naruto in her arms and show him the honest care and affection he deserved. As much as she would never admit it, she was so jealous of Izumi being able to hold him like that, and being able to make him feel safe and cared for.

On the other however, she needed to figure out how she was going to break Izumi's hold over him. He already didn't trust her. In fact he was probably scared of her. If she didn't figure out a way to convince him that Izumi was lying to him, she might never get to free him from her grasp.

After much internal debate, a tired Kurama laid down on the bed next to Naruto and pulled the blanket over the two of them. She held him in her arms, she could feel his muscles begin to relax. She tried to relax as well as she fell asleep with Naruto in her arms.

 _Some time later_

Naruto began to stir. He began remembering the events that took place in Tsuchi no kuni. He remembered Izumi, and being surrounded by that bubble. But she must have gotten him out, he could feel the familiar warmth of someone behind him holding him only like Izumi could. So he relaxed again and fell back asleep.

Kurama had been awake for the past hour, and had stayed with Naruto thinking of how to show him what happened the night they left Konoha. 'I can't just show him an illusion of what happened. He won't believe me. But, if this is our collective mindscape that means it has my memories in here too... I just need to convince him to go see it with me..' At that point she had looked at Naruto's sleeping face, and her thoughts wandered from the issue at hand.

"Izumi..." Naruto said in his sleep as he wrapped Kurama's arms around him tighter. At this Kurama was mad, but wasn't this what she wanted? Naruto felt like whoever was there with him, was there to protect and care for him. Isn't that what she was after? Still. It didn't feel right to her.

Another few hours passed. Naruto's eyes began to open, he turned to look at who he presumed to be Izumi. "Good morning Izu-" Naruto stopped mid sentence when he saw an unfamiliar face. They locked eyes for a moment. The crimson haired stranger spoke, "Good morning Naru-chan. I hope you slept well."

Naruto was so startled he jumped out of the bed. "Who are you?" he demanded. "Where is Izumi... Where am I?"

"Izumi is away right now, she was manipulating you. As for where you are... You're in your mindscape. The place where you store your memories and every emotion you've ever felt." Kurama paused for a moment, and tapped into her demonic chakra **"I'm suprised you haven't recognized who I am already"** Kurama said and then let her demonic chakra die down.

Naruto began to shiver a bit. Izumi told him repeatedly to avoid Kurama as much as possible and that if something came up, she would handle it. But she was clearly not here, so he had to deal with this himself. "What do you mean manipulating me? She was the first person to actually care about me! Izumi Onee-chan wouldn't do that. You were the one manipulating me!"

"I had a feeling you wouldn't just take my word for it. This place houses all of your memories, and even some of mine. Come with me, and see the truth." She said as she stood up, and held out her hand. Presumably for Naruto to grab.

Naruto just ignored it. "The truth... yeah right... all you want is to bring me more pain!" He said angrily and charged her in an attempt to fight her.

Kurama flared her chakra and stopped him in his tracks. **"I did not want it to come to this, but you've forced my hand,"** Kurama said as she create a cage around Naruto. Kurama left the cabin and headed towards the memory of the night Naruto ran away from Konoha. The cage lifted up into the air and followed the woman.

They walked through the halls of Naruto's memories, the boy being able to barely see each one as they passed by. His time with Akatsuki, and his time in the village... but then Kurama stopped. She entered a door that was at the end of the hall. It was very dark inside the room, and when the cage moved him into the room, he felt very uneasy. It took a while, but eventually Kurama stopped again, and entered a small room that split off from the main hallway.

As soon as he entered, visions of the events that occured the night he ran away from Konoha began to appear. His younger, weaker self running from the mob of Konoha civilians. Being cornered in the alley. Being beaten to near death.

But then, Naruto saw what really happened that night. Kurama trying to get him away from Konoha. Being caught by Izumi and Kisami. The tsukuyomi.

 _ **"UCHIHA! What do you want with Naruto!?"**_ _She screamed angrily. Izumi walked over to Naruto._

 _"You already know what I want with him. He's more important than he could ever know." Izumi said while gently rubbing his cheek, much to the anger of Kurama._ _ **"Get your hands off of him, you bitch!"**_ _She said while banging against her cage._

 _Izumi just giggled lightly. "In here, I have the power. And I'm going to use that power to ensure that he's loyal to me." She finished with an evil smirk. If the cage that Kurama was trapped in was made of real metal, her anger alone would've melted the bars, and her chakra would've vaporized it._

 _At this Naruto began to stir in his sleep._ _ **"NARUTO DON'T LET HER-"**_ _Kurama was cut off by Izumi making her voice silent, and positioned her behind the torture table, so Naruto could not see her._

 _Then the torture began. And the memory faded._

Naruto couldn't take it anymore. "This can't be true! You're making this up... Izumi would never..." The boy began to break down. Doubt filled his mind. He thought he'd found a place to belong. People to care for him. After so much pain and betrayal, he was finally met with love and acceptance. Only for it to be another cruel lie. Naruto barred his teeth in anger. 'This world is hell! The only person I can trust is myself...'

Kurama could sense the conflict within the boy. She made the cage disappear, and he fell to the ground on his knees. Kurama knelt down and rubbed Naruto's back. "I'm sorry Naruto, I didn't want you to find out like this, but she was taking advantage of you. She was using you." She tried to comfort the boy.

"I need to be alone..." Naruto said, trying to hold back his emotions. "Okay, let me get us out of here first," Kurama helped him stand, and walked with him back to the forest. He immediately jumped into the forest, and ran out of Kurama's view. She decided to follow him discreetly.

Naruto ran into the forest as far as he could. Memories of Izumi and Akatsuki coming back to him, forcing tears to begin to fall down his cheek. He tried to shake them off and kept running, but they just kept coming back. He eventually stopped in a clearing and shot off enough Katon jutsu to set the world on fire.

Why did everyone have to be so cruel. Torturing him. LYING to him. He hated them. He hated everyone. He just wanted to be loved... could he not have that? was it something wrong with him? Or was every human so full of hate and lies as the ones he's encountered?

"Naruto-" Kurama began but was interupted by Naruto, "I said I needed to be alone!" He said as he shot a fireball towards Kurama. She walked right through it and emerged unscathed. "That's no way to treat the only sentient being in existance that actually cares about your wellbeing."

This immediately shut Naruto down. "I-I'm sorry, Kurama..." the boy began to break down into tears again. Kurama embraced him. "Shhhh, It'll be okay. Humans are so hateful, and I know that from experience. Even demons don't treat their children this badly. You don't have to worry about them anymore. I can train you to become strong in here, you don't need any pesky humans. I'm all you need." Kurama said, the last part was barely audible.

"You mean it? I can... I can trust you?" Naruto said vulnerably. 'He's so cute!' Kurama thought. How in the world could ANYONE, harm this tiny little ball of adorableness? let alone put him through so much bullshit that he has to turn to a demon for affection?

"Yes, Naruto you can trust me. I swear, on my soul, I'll be there for you always," Kurama said softly. As Naruto returned the embrace and cried happily into her shoulder. "I'm sorry Kurama. For not believing in you before..." Naruto got out in the middle of crying.

"It's okay Naruto, let's get you cleaned up back at the cabin, then there's a lot we have to discuss." Kurama said as she moved Naruto onto her back for a piggy-back ride and ran through the forest with the young boy clinging to her.

'This is how it should've been to begin with. Things are as they should be now, and it'll be my job to ensure they stay that way. No human will ever be strong enough to hurt him physically, and no human will be close enough to him to hurt him like so many before had. She would protect Naruto.'

 _Twenty years later in mindscape_

 _(4 years In the real world)_

Naruto had spent the last twenty years inside the seal honing his abilities. Using Kage Bunshin, he was able to expand his knowledge of ninjutsu to levels Oriko would be jealous of. Kurama had explained to him that all of the physical training he did in here actually did have an effect on his body in the real world. That was how the meditation technique was designed. He still had to eat in his mindscape, this was to represent nourishing himself with the natural chakra around his body. (Luckily, this form of consumtion produced no waste) And sleep was still necessary to replenish his mental energy.

He'd even begun to look back in his memories, as painful as it was, to inspect Fuinjutsu, the art of seals. From what little he'd seen, he was able to pick up basic sealing techniques, things like storage seals, locking seals, etc.

He'd tried to forget about Akatsuki, he was certainly mad at them, but he couldn't quite remove them from his heart. He didn't know what he'd do if he ran into any of them, especially Deidara, Konan, Hikari... Izumi. They all haunted him in his sleep, even Kurama had noticed something wrong with him. He didn't want to make her worry about him. She'd been very good to him, given him everything, and protected him from every challenge he'd faced in the past.

Currently, we see Naruto training with Kurama late at night. He'd been practicing increasing the intensity of his flames, using his wind element. It was going rather well in Naruto's opinion. Not only did it do more damage, but it also looked a lot cooler than before, all of his wind enhanced flames burned a deep blue. He'd also mastered Suiton (Water release) and Doton(Earth release) in this time, and begun to branch into Raiton (Lightning release) Jutsu.

 **"Kumiawase Jutsu: Kasai Tatsumaki!"** Naruto shouted, on the verge of exaughstion. The tornado engulfed and area twice the size of his previous use of the jutsu in the real world. "Let's go back to the cabin Naruto, you've pushed yourself hard enough for one day." Kurama said softly. Naruto looked like he could barely stand. "You go ahead and go back now, I'll be there soon, just let me do it again." Naruto said, panting.

'He can be so stubborn sometimes, but he's so cute!' Kurama sighed. "Okay, but one more! That's it, okay?" Naruto scratched the back of his head, "I promise Kura-chan." Naruto said with a smile. Their relationship was... complex. They trained together so she was like his teacher, but she also looked out for him, which kind of made her an older sister figure as well. They also slept in the same bed, and that much physical contact with an absolutely stunning beauty such as Kurama, as a thirteen year old, made it impossible for him not to start thinking about other possibilities.

Once she was out of view, he flew through the hand signs one more time, **"Kumiawase Jutsu: Kasai Tatsumaki!"** Once again, the pillar of flame burned brightly in the darkness. Once it dissipated, Naruto fell to his knees. "Na-to" he heard a voice. He couldn't quite tell what it was saying, or where it was coming from so he brushed it off as being some residual sound left from his jutsu.

"Naruto" He heard much more clearly. It was coming from... Kurama's side of the mindscape. As he ran off into the woods after whatever was calling him, he eventually reached a large stone wall. In the middle of the wall was a very large stone gate coated in moss and vines. "Naruto" He heard again.

It sounded familiar but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. He did know, however, that it was coming from behind that gate. He moved towards it hesitantly, he was about to touch it when, **"Naruto Uzumaki! You'd better not be exploring my memories or something! I'm not going to wait any longer. I will find you, and I will drag you all the way back to the cabin!"**

Naruto blanched. 'This can wait, Kura-chan is going to kill me if she finds out I'm snooping in her part of the mindscape' He thought to himself as he went back to the cabin. "Sorry Kura-chan. I got distracted by something... I'll tell you about it tomorrow. For now, can we just go to sleep?" Naruto asked exaughsted.

Kurama sighed, she wanted to talk about it now. But, Naruto looked so tired, and his voice became very soft. She knew he was going to pass out in a few minutes if he didn't get some rest. "Alright, we'll deal with it tomorrow. Now get in bed," Kurama said to Naruto. He complied, and fell asleep almost instantly.

 _Some time later_

Naruto woke up in a cold sweat. "Naruto" He heard again and again. Even in his sleep. He slowly and quietly hopped out of bed. He left the cabin, and ran towards the the gate.

When he arrived, the gate looked the same as it did before, but it was now glowing a light blue color. Naruto walked towards it cautiously. He pressed his ear against the door to see if he could hear anything more. "Naruto!" The voice sounded amplified. It made his head hurt. He couldn't wait any more. He opened the door quickly, and inside was an endless void of bright blue, and standing ten feet in front of him. His worst nightmare.

Izumi Uchiha stood before him and gave him a curious look. "Naruto? Is that you? You look so much older than when I saw you last." Izumi said in her sisterly tone, as she tried to approach the boy for a hug. His muscles stiffened and he moved back, "S-stay away!" Naruto managed to stutter out.

"Naruto... what's wrong? I'm here to help you find a way out. Come here, we can get you back. To Akatsuki. To our home." Izumi said softly.

"I know what you did on the night I left konoha... You hurt me... You betrayed me... please... just stay away from me." Naruto said in a low voice.

Izumi stood there with a frown on her face. 'How does he know!? That shouldn't matter though, I can still get him back.'

"Naruto... I'm sorry, back then... you were just a tool to me. But as time went on, and we trained together I grew to care for you. You became the focus in my life. Everything in my life, from the time I was born until I met you, felt either fake or not enough. You were the first thing that I ever came to care for. I need you... Please, forgive me..." She said as she began to cry, for the first time in her life. She moved towards Naruto for a hug, but he tensed and stepped back. This crushed her. 'He's different now... He's been tainted by the Kyuubi...' Izumi thought to herself. Her sadness and grief turned to anger. "The Kyuubi made you like this, huh? I WILL KILL HER." She said as she disappeared into a flock of crows.

' I have to get to Kura-chan!' Naruto thought to himself as he sped through the forest.

 _With Kurama_

Kurama lay in her bed, she'd been awake since she felt a foreign chakra enter Naruto's system. 'So she found a way in here, huh? This will be a good test for Naruto. To see where his loyalties lie.' She thought to herself. She closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep.

Izumi entered her room, in a whirl of crows. She moved quietly over to Kurama, kunai in hand, and raised it above Kurama's head. Just as she was about to bring it down on Kurama, Naruto charged through the door and tackled her to the ground.

"Naruto! Don't get in my way! I don't want to hurt you." Izumi said as the two wrestled on the ground, while Kurama sat in bed and watched. They continued rolling around on the ground until Naruto ended up on top, looking down at Izumi. "Naruto..." Izumi said weakly, while crying. 'She could've hurt me by now, but she didn't...' Naruto thought to himself. They stayed there for a moment until Kurama spoke. "Kill her, Naruto." She said in a cold voice.

He hesitated. He felt paralyzed. Could he do that? He didn't know. He began to shake, and he began to breathe heavily.

Slowly, Naruto pulled out a kunai, and gripped it tightly in his hands. He held it above Izumi's heart as she lay there, looking at him with tears rolling down her cheeks.

Naruto raised the kunai.

His memories of Akatsuki flashed before his eyes.

He brought it down. The memories of Izumi helping him train.

It was just above her heart.

The feelings of security. The care he got from her. All the times he was on the verge of madness and she saved him...

Izumi braced for the pain. But it never came. She looked at Naruto and saw the kunai resting above her heart. He had collapsed on her, he was sobbing uncontrollably. "Izumi..." was all he could get out, before a bolt of red lightning blew him off of her.

It came from Kurama, she was livid. **"After everything she's done to you... Done to us... you still can't rid her from your life! If you are too weak to do it. Then I will!"** She shouted angrily as she ripped Izumi's heart out with her now clawed hand, which of course made Izumi disperse into a blue mist of chakra.

Kurama heard Naruto writhing in pain on the ground. **"You will learn to hate her... whether you want to... OR NOT!"** She yelled while casting a genjutsu on Naruto. The jutsu put Naruto in a situation where he was tortured, emotionally, physically and mentally. By Izumi.

She didn't enjoy hurting Naruto like this, in fact she hated doing it but it was necessary to also reinforced Naruto's dependancy on her, and her alone. Naruto felt like he was in the genjutsu for months. Seing Izumi toture him and break his heart, only to be comforted and healed by Kurama. In reality, he was in the genjutsu for a few hours in the meditation technique.

Kurama watched him, and when he came back to her and woke up, he snuggled up to her. "I love you Kurama-chan. You're always there for me. I know I can count on you, not the Uchiha" He said, relaxed and sounding like he had forgotten the events of the previous night. At this Kurama just smiled. "I know Naruto-kun. I will always be here for you."

 _Meanwhile_

 _Somewhere in the Elemental Nations_

Izumi was in the middle of a lot of paperwork. She sighed as she put her head in her hands. Ever since Oriko had released the Zinrax-X, life had become much more difficult for her. She felt some chakra enter her body, and memories filled her head. Of Naruto, and what was happening to him. She even managed to pick up on Kurama casting the genjutsu on Naruto. She grit her teeth for a moment, but the anger soon turned to happiness. Naruto was alive! Even through all of this...

 **Well, what'd you think? Leave a review, praise, criticism. Anything! :)**

 **Next chapter will be what has happened in the Elemental Nations while Naruto has been away.**

 **See you then- Howl's Curse**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hey guys! Short chapter this time, I've been a bit busy dealing with life. But here you go, these are the major events that happen within Naruto's meditation period.**

 _Flashback_

Izumi ran from the cave, headed towards Oriko's and Sasori's chakra signatures. Her anger driving her even faster. If she had her way, Oriko would be leaving Akatsuki without a head. When she found them, so she tackled Oriko at full speed.

At first Sasori was suprised, but he payed what was happening no mind. In fact, he might rather enjoy watching Oriko getting beaten to the ground.

Izumi and Oriko wrestled for a bit, "Oriko... What did you do to Naruto?!" Izumi asked with hate clear in her voice. Oriko managed to kick Izumi off of her, and got on her feet. "I don't know what you're talking about Izumi-chan, he got separated from us a while ago and it seems that the trail has gone cold." Oriko said innocently.

"That may be true... But why was Naruto even outside of the base? His training wasn't complete!" Izumi spoke and stared into Oriko's eyes, Mangekyo Sharingan active. At this Sasori spoke up. "Yes, leader-sama said that we were to go alone. Why was he here?"

Izumi appeared behind Oriko and grabbed her throat with one hand and lifted her into the air. Her anger telling her to just crush her windpipe right there.

Oriko began to sweat a bit. She knew this wouldn't end well for her, it was time to leave, but she needed to go collect her lab data back in the Akatsuki hideout. "I-I was told by Konan that we were to take him with us to test his progress." Oriko lied, she needed to get back into the base. This was the best way to get back, force them to return and communicate with Pein and Konan.

Izumi scoffed and threw Oriko on the ground. Sasori picked up the, now gasping for air, woman. "We should return to base to clear this up." Sasori said. "As much as I want to gut her right now, I think we should let leader-sama be the one to decide whether she's guilty of defying orders, then we can decide her future."

Izumi hesitantly agreed, "Let's go now, I want to see this through... now." She said as they traveled back to the Akatsuki base.

 _1 hour later_

Sasori dragged Oriko into the base, and they began moving through the halls. Izumi was close behind them, and as soon as they were near enough, Oriko used the substitution jutsu with the chair in her room.

She immediately put a locking seal on the door and began grabbing as many samples as possible, making sure to grab Naruto's first. Izumi and Sasori began trying to open the door, but to no avail, by the time Pein got around to investigate what was happening, she was already gone. Her chakra signature having vanished almost immediately after Pein opened the door.

'DAMN SNAKE! I SHOULD'VE KILLED HER WHEN I HAD THE CHANCE!' Izumi fumed. "Sasori, you and Konan will track Oriko, and want her head and Akatsuki ring as soon as possible. Understood?" Pein commanded.

Sasori just sighed and began trying to find a trail. He would find none.

 _Three years later_

In the many years since Oriko had run from Akatsuki, she had spent most of that time examining the mutated form of the Zinrax-3, Zinrax-X she began to call it. Injecting it into unwilling subjects, only for all of them to die of an unknown cause. Upon examining the bodies of her test subjects, nothing was physically wrong with them, yet they stilled died a slow, painful death, unlike the Zinrax-3. Also unlike the Zinrax-3, it wasn't very contagious. She began playing with the disease for a while, but then, a breakthrough.

She had discovered that the disease was, to put it simply, eating the chakra of its host. Oriko began to think of ways she could make this an even more powerful tool. The first time around, demonic chakra changed the disease into what it was now. 'Maybe if I have Juugo channel the cursed seal's chakra into it, it will mutate again...' Oriko thought to herself.

Eventually the curiousity got the better of her and she called Juugo in. Just like with Naruto, she coated a piece of chakra paper with the mutated Zinrax-3. When Juugo funneled his chakra into it something unexpected happened. The paper turned into a purple mist, and Juugo made the mistake of inhaling it.

Almost instantaneously Juugo grabbed his head in pain, the cursed seal flaring out across his body. His nose became bloody and skin began to turn a light purple. Oriko seeing this, immediately tried to have the curse seal knock him out, but it wasn't responding. Juugo screamed out in pain, his eyes turned a blood red and then he fell over. 'He's... dead.' Oriko thought to herself. But then, breathe returned to his body, he let out a primal roar, and smashed Oriko into a wall. Thinking that she was dead, 'Juugo' pulverized the wall that was keeping him from freedom, and ran out into the elemental Nations.

'This... is really bad...' Oriko thought to herself.

 _4 years later_

In the past four years, many small villages had been terrorized by the Zinra. A group of what looked to be demons, that razed small towns. But that wasn't the scary thing. The scary thing was, they didn't kill the men. They turned them into demons that couldn't even recognize their own loved ones.

Rumour had it that they were attracted to the large masses of Chakra, often cleaning up after skirmishes, defeating the weakened victor and turning them into demons too.

And today would be the day that they shook the elemental nations to their core.

Oriko, had completely ignored these 'Zinra', finding them to be brutish and boring, showing almost no signs of intelligence. Aside from their potential relationship to the missing Juugo, she was too focused on invading Konoha to care about them. She wanted to kill her old sensei before she looked at anything else.

Which brings us to Konoha, Oriko had managed convince Sunagakure and Iwagakure into invading Konoha alongside her and her Otogakure, the alliance consisted of 80,000 shinobi and three jinchuriki, The kage of each village chose to only send half of their shinobi with Oriko, and did not go themselves so they could protect their villages from incasion from other villages. Konoha had about 35,000 Shinobi, and ever since Naruto left, had no Jinchuriki. Konoha was outmanned, and outgunned. In recent years the level of strength in Konoha shinobi had almost doubled, if not tripled. But three Jinchuriki with the alliance was kind of overkill.

The Oto-Suna-Iwa alliance stood, surrounding Konohagakure. The Yonbi Jinchuriki would lead the charge with the first wave, the Ichibi Jinchuriki was backup for the Yonbi, and the Gobi jinchuriki was going to enter Konoha with an elite strike team and trasform inside the village's wall.

The allianced charged Konoha, and the Konoha ninja braced for a difficult fight. The battle raged for days. The Hokage kept the Yonbi busy, but when the Gobi made it's appearance, that's when things started going downhill for Konoha.

Hiruzen grit his teeth, 'I will not let Oriko destroy all that I have fought to protect!' He thought as he smacked the charging yonbi away with his adamantine staff for the hundredth time that day. He was not going to be able to keep this up for much longer, but he was sure as hell going to buy as much time for his village to deal with the Gobi, not to metion the remainder of the invading forces.

That's when the unexpected began to happen. Hiruzen couldn't make out who they were, but a large pack of what looked to be beasts began to ravage the Oto-Suna-Iwa forces from behind. He was in shock, this was his chance to rally his forces!

Seeing the same as the Hokage, Shikaku and Inoichi sent a message to his forces. They regrouped and began to push against the alliances forces, while the ANBU kept the Gobi relatively at bay. The forces of the enemy alliance began to dwindle, and Oriko could be seen fighting Kakashi and Gai, while sending summons to help fight the 'beasts' alongside the Ichibi Jinchuriki.

Only a few hours later had the Ichibi jinchuriki and the main force of the alliance collapsed. The exaughsted Yonbi Jinchuriki transformed back into his human form, and retreated back to Iwagakure. The Gobi was not so lucky. He was surrounded by enemy ninja and quickly fell to the organized Konoha shinobi.

Oriko was beginning to pull out, as with what little remained of the invading force. Only one thousand Oto shinobi. Hiruzen let go a sigh of relief it was over, he thought.

He thought wrong.

After the beasts finished with the Oto-Suna-Iwa alliance, they immediately set their sights on Konoha, and their numbers seemed to have multiplied. The exhausted Konoha now had a new threat to deal with. With less than a half of their starting forces, Konoha began to fight these 'beasts' but they looked more like demons up close. Humanoid, they had horns and claws the size of a man's head. They were the Zinra.

Konoha had tried to fight back, but they were exhausted and getting slaughtered by the Zinra. Hiruzen watched in horror as these beasts began ripping through his shinobi. He wouldn't stand for it. He leapt into the fight. "Konoha Shinobi! Regroup and protect the evacuated villagers, head to the bunker! I will buy you time!" The konoha shinobi didn't want to leave him, but they knew Hiruzen wouldn't have it any other way. His ANBU stayed with him, however, and fought to the bitter end.

The total of people who died in the battle, exceeded one hundred thousand people. More than half of which would now become Zinra. This was most certainly not looking good for the elemental nations.

 **So tell me what you guys thought! This one isn't my proudest of chapters, but I blame that on it setting the stage for the next few. Leave a review, Praise, Criticism, anything!**

 **See you next time! -Howl's Curse**


	9. Chapter 9

**Okay guys, Sorry I haven't been as consistent with my updates as I previously have. A lot of life shit has piled up, so expect updates every few days. Enjoy the chapter!**

After the official destruction of Konoha, many other hidden villages began to rejoice. But it was short lived. The Zinra had begun to push the major hidden villages back, the weakened Suna and Iwa were trapped in their villages, the remnants of their invasion force followed by large packs of Zinra. Iwa had large stores of food and supplies so they were fine for now. Suna however, had to fight to secure any supplies they could get. Nine out of ten supply caravans were being destroyed by the Zinra, due to the lack of shinobi able to protect them. The people of Sunagakure were starving, and were on the verge of plunging into anarchy.

Kirigakure, Kumogakure and Takigakure were both fine for the most part, the fact that their villages were so secluded, helping a lot. However they had become restricted in their movements, and everything had to be executed perfectly in order to avoid major contact with the Zinra. Kiri's civil war was drawing some Zinra attention however, and the leader of the rebellion saw this and decided not to endanger the entirety of Mizu no Kuni by leading them right to Kiri.

The other villages, however, were not so lucky. Any that had not already been destroyed by the Zinra, were in the midst of destroying themselves. Akatsuki had tried to protect Amegakure from the Zinra, but they were outnumbered one-thousand to one. Not even Pein could hold the line for long. It was later deduced that so many appeared because of the gigantic chakra signature they gave off as a collective. Their members either left the group in order to pursue their own goals, or regrouped with Pein and haven't been seen or heard from since.

The remnants of Konoha had found a hidden cave network in Hi no Kuni, and began to rebuild there. The new 'Hokage' was Shimura Danzo. Under his leadership, the civilians were being trained how to fight, albeit it was going to take time to get them up to the level that they needed to be. The remaining Shinobi were either on guard duty, or busy collecting supplies until they could plant crops and grow their own food.

 _Naruto's mindscape_

Naruto began today the same as he had every other day, running through his mindscape as fast as possible wearing weights and away from Kurama, until something unexpected began to happen. He started getting visions of an unfamiliar cave. 'Am I waking up? Kura-chan said I wouldn't be waking up for a while though, what's happening!' He began to panic. He started to become transparent, meanwhile Kurama had caught up to him. "Naru-chaaaan, I've already caught up to you, what's-" She stopped mid sentence, seeing the now disappearing Naruto. 'Why is he waking up?' That's when she remembered the only condition that allowed a user of this technique to wake up prematurely. "Naruto, you're waking up. I don't know the specifics, but there is something very, very dangerous in the elemental nations right now. Dangerous enough to wipe out the entirety of humanity. I know you want nothing more than to watch them burn, but you need to focus on destroying this threat, or it will become stronger than the both of us combined." Kurama said seriously. Naruto listened intently and let his training kick in. He took deep breaths, and focused on her words. He nodded. "Alright Kura-chan, let's destroy whatever this is, together." He said as he disappeared entirely.

 _Tsuchi no Kuni_

 _Cave system_

The golden orb that had cut Naruto off from the rest of the world for almost seven years now began to flicker and faded into nothingness. Naruto fell to the floor and landed on his hands and knees, breathing heavily. He was exaughsted. 'Kurama forgot to mention how taxing this technique was on my body...' Naruto thought to himself.

 **'Oops, sorry about that Naru-chan'** Kurama said in Naruto's mind chuckling to herself. 'Well, I should go find a place to recouperate. This place didn't feel very safe, and it was becoming a bit difficult to breathe. The young man looked down at his clothes, most of them were way too small, but his Akatsuki cloak still fit fine. He grit his teeth. 'I'll keep this only until I find better clothing.' He thought to himself. He looked at the necklace Hikari had given him years ago.

Naruto stumbled through the cave weakly, leaning against the wall of the cave. It took him a while, but he finally reached what he remembered to be the entrance to the cave. It had been blocked off by boulders and rubble, explaining the difficulty breathing, barely any air was getting inside the cave.

 **"Futon: Atsugai"** Naruto said weakly after slowly going through handsigns. A torrent of wind blew away most of the rubble. The resulting dust cloud blocking his vision for a bit, but when it dissipated, Naruto had to cover his eyes. The brightness of a sun he hadn't seen in seven years blinding him temporarily. He could sense the changes in the elemental nations since he had gone into his meditation, long before he could physically see the effects that were right in front of him.

The world felt even more corrupt and evil than it had before Kurama had taken him into his midscape. But when he opened his eyes, he was shocked. The forest that had previously surrounded the cave he was meditating in had completely vanished. Replaced with a grey, harsh and desolate wasteland with no end in sight. Boulders were scattered around the immediate area, presumably from a fight between Iwagakure shinobi and whatever this threat was. There were no bodily remains to be found.

Naruto looked at what looked like a giant cloud of dust heading his way. 'This is worse than I thought it would be' Naruto thought to himself. He collected himself. 'I could probably wait out whatever the dust cloud was in the cave' Naruto thought to himself.

Just as he was about to walk back in, he sensed movement coming down the cliffside of the cave. Whatever it was, it was big, and not friendly. It charged him and just about planted its giant fist in his face, but Naruto instinctually leapt away from it. He flashed through handsigns, **"Katon: Goukakyu no Jutsu"** (Fire Style: Fireball Technique). The 'beast' just shrugged it off.

It let out an angry roar and charged Naruto again, but this time Naruto wasn't able to move in time due to his his exaughstion. He took a fist to the gut, and felt the air leave his body. He flew a good twenty feet before skidding along the ground for another fifteen and stopping. He held his gut in pain, and had almost no time to roll out of the way of the immediate follow up by whatever his opponent was.

Naruto went through handsigns as quickly as his exaughsted body would allow, **"Doton: Wareme Otoshiama"** (Earth Style: Chasm Trap). Naruto slammed his hand into the dust covered ground. The earth beneath the beast quickly slid down about fifty feet. It seemed unphased by this and immediately began climbing up the walls of the pit as quickly as it could.

Naruto went through even more handsigns. Just as one of the beasts hands came out of the trap, Naruto stopped and channeled more chakra into the ground. **"Doton: Wareme Tsubusu"** (Earth Style: Chasm Smash). The walls of the chasm closed almost instantaneously, smashing the majority of the beast. Its arm was the only thing visible to anyone now. Naruto fell to his knees, panting. He stared at the place where the beast had previously been. The arm violently spasmed and turned a grey color until it faded entirely into dust. 'There must be more of these... things' Naruto thought to himself.

 **'Naruto, we need to leave. Now. I can sense more of them heading our way, while not as strong as this one, there are too many for us to handle now. I'll lead you away from them.'** Kurama spoke seriously to Naruto. Her chakra pointing the way for Naruto.

Naruto slowly got to his feet. His vison began to blur, and he had a dull headache, but he began running in the direction that Kurama was pointing him. He ran for what felt like eternity until he finally saw some green, a forest. It was a relief, seeing as he hadn't seen any living thing other than that 'thing' since he'd woken up.

He had just entered the forest when he looked behind him. Multiple figures, charging towards him at a ridiculous speed. He jumped up into the trees and began leaping from tree to tree in hopes of escaping their view, but it wasn't enough. They were soon right on his back.

Naruto landed on a tree and narrowly dodged being pounced on by one of those things. He took a mental note that they were much smaller than his previous opponent. He kept moving, but he knew it was only a matter of time before they caught up with him again, he was just exaughsting himself now.

He landed in a clearing and looked behind him. The previously fast paced hunters on his trail since he'd entered the forest had slowly crawled into the clearing, looking ready to pounce. There were seven of them. Naruto took a deep breath, and stared down his opponents. As soon as they moved towards him, he flashed through handseals. Just as their claws were about to pierce his flesh, the boy shouted. **"Futon: Atsugai"** and blew them all away, four of them missing the majority of their limbs.

Naruto again fell to his knees breathing heavily. The other three beasts were now chraging him once again. He tried to move, but his body wasn't responding. Kurama was about to surge some demonic chakra into Naruto, even though it may cripple him, its better than him dying. However.

"Yahoooooo!" A happy/sadistic shout was heard from behind Naruto. A woman wearing a bone mask and dark clothing leapt in between Naruto and the beasts. Her silver hair being the only identifiable trait that she had.

Within a minute, the three remaining beasts had been sliced into too many pieces to count by her scythe. She looked over at the still downed for of Naruto. "I haven't seen that cloak in a while gaki! Tell me where you got it, and maybe I'll make your sacrifice to Jashin-sama slightly less painful." She said with bloodlust still apparent in her voice.

Naruto was a bit stuck in the emotional department. He knew this was Hikari, he was glad to see her here, she was always super nice to him, but at the same time she was Akatsuki, and they used him, they betrayed him. 'I want to trust her... but I know I can't. Should I try and fight her? What should I do?' Naruto thought to himself.

 **"It seems she's left Akatsuki... While I never did like her, She should recognize you and take care of you until I can heal you. We don't have much of a choice anyways, so let's take what we can and leave as soon as possible."** Kurama spoke in his head.

Naruto began to relax. If Kurama said it was alright, then it'd be alright. He gave a slight chuckle, and coughed up a little bit of blood. "It has been a while, hasn't it Hikari," Naruto spoke barely above a whisper, before he gave into his exaughstion.

Hikari was shocked. 'Is this Naruto?!' She thought to herself. He certainly looked like him, and it would explain the Akatsuki cloak. 'But Izumi said he was dead! This can't be him!' She thought to herself in anger. She raised her scythe above the sleeping boy's head and brought it down, but stopped herself. The blade mere centimeters from the boy's skin. The necklace she had made the boy so long ago was clearly visible hanging around his neck.

'It's him! He's Alive!' Hikari thought to herself happily. Ever since she first laid eyes on the boy, he had always made her feel funny. His smile, and his eyes. They made her feel funny inside, and she'd never really had the courage to get very close to the boy. That and Izumi always kept him to herself. 'I'm going to love making that bitch scream!' Hikari thought to herself. 'But for now, I get Naruto all to myself!' Hikari thought to herself, giddy at the thought of getting to actually be around Naruto for an extended period of time.

'Today is such a great day!' Hikari thought as she smiled to herself and picked up Naruto. Meanwhile, Kurama was growling in Naruto's mindscape. **'Inner peace. She isn't anywhere near as bad as the Uchiha. Yes, better her than the Uchiha. But still... She needs to back off of Naruto. He already cares too much about her, I'll need to cut this bond too...'**

 **Well, tell me what you think of this chapter! Criticism, praise, anything! Also, sorry about the underdeveloped previous chapter, I dropped the ball on that one O.o**

 **Anyways, see ya next chapter! - Howl's Curse**


	10. Chapter 10

Hey, Sorry for the ridiculous wait, SAT's are really annoying O.o Anyways, hope you enjoy! ~Howl's Curse

Naruto opened his eyes slowly. It felt like his body was on fire. He groaned as he tried to stand up from the bed he was in, only to fall back to the ground once again. He took in his surroundings. He was in what looked like a small hut. "Ah, Naruto-kun, you're awake!" Hikari said happily while quickly wrapping him up in a hug.

She then placed him back in the bed. "Don't move for now, you seem very tired. You rest for now and let me take care of you." Hikari said. "Thanks, Hikari-chan..." Naruto said as his stomach began to growl violently. As if on que, Hikari gently sat him up, and grabbed a bowl from one of the bedside table. "Here, I prepared some soup for you. Enjoy!" Hikari said as she handed it to him.

Naruto quickly grabbed it, but upon closer inspection it seemed. Suspicious. It smelled great, but looked like it was a bowl of jello. Naruto took his spoon and took a small amount of it and put it in his mouth.

He was pleasantly suprised. 'This is amazing!' Naruto thought to himself as he began to eat as much of it as he could, as quickly as he could. Hikari just chuckled to herself, 'Score! I knew he'd like it!' Hikari thought to herself. Even though cooking was most certainly NOT her strong suit, she had managed to pick up some basic cooking skills from Konan before she left Akatsuki.

"What do you think?" Hikari asked knowingly. Naruto blushed in embarassment. "It's absolutely fantastic Hikari, thanks!" Naruto spoke happily. Eventually his eating slowed, and he began to process the things he had encountered the day before. "So... Hikari... What's going on out there?" Naruto asked.

"What do you mean? The Zinra?" Hikari asked. Naruto nodded.

"Have you been living under a rock?" Hikari asked jokingly. Naruto just chuckled a bit and said, "Actually, yes. I'll fill you in later though, I need to know why the world's gone to shit."

Hikari thought for a second, then filled him in on the current state of the world.

Naruto thought for a moment. This was bad. For a threat large enough to destroy Konoha to be as shrouded in mystery as the Zinra were, was shocking. All that Hikari knew was that they were unpredictable and weird. They didn't have movement patterns or anything. The only thing that seemed to have been consistant was their attraction to chakra, and the fact that men can become Zinra.

3 days later

After three days of having to put up with Hikari, Kurama was VERY agitated. Naruto however, was enjoying her company a lot. She was super attentive, and helped him get back on his feet, she even slept in the same bed as he did, much to Kurama's outrage. Hikari, for her part, was conflicted. She wanted to find a sacrifice to Jashin, but she didn't want to leave Naruto for fear that she'd lose him again.

 **'Wake up Naruto'** Kurama spoke softly in Naruto's mindscape. **'It's time to go, we can't stay here.'** She spoke again. Naruto was now awake. It was night time, 'What do you mean it's time to leave? She's been nothing but good to us, I can't just ditch her here alone.' He said while looking at the sleeping face of Hikari in the moonlit room. He thought she was rather cu-

Suddenly a very sharp pain began to grow in Naruto's head. He would've let out a scream, but his voice had left his body. **'We are leaving here. Now! She's no good for you, and you can't trust her. You know I don't like doing this to you, so just make it easy and do as I say!'** Kurama said firmly.

'Kurama... I can't...' Naruto began to say to Kurama, but the pain only doubled. It was agony. Naruto looked at Hikari's face, the pain only intensifying the more he looked. He didn't want to leave, but Kurama was adamant about not trusting her. Usually he'd trust that Kurama knew best, but it was difficult believing her this time. He felt as though he could trust Hikari.

When this thought crossed his mind, the pain increased another ten-fold. He fell off of the bed and on to the floor. His breathing became labored and his vision was becoming blurry. Kurama had never gone this far with him before (To his memory) in terms of pain. Naruto gave in. 'Fine... I'll do it...' Instantly the pain stopped. **'We'll talk about this later, for now, let's go Naru-chan.'**

Naruto couldn't even look at Hikari, for fear that whatever he would think about would make Kurama angry. He packed what little he had, and put on his old Akatsuki cloak, seeing as it was the only piece of warm-ish clothing he had. He walked to the door, and left Hikari's hideout. Little did he know, Hikari was watching him with insane eyes. 'He thinks he can leave me so easily. We'll I'll teach him! He won't ever leave me ever again!' She thought to herself letting out a maniacal laugh.

 **'Head towards Konoha, we'll start looking for clues there'** Naruto just nodded and began his journey to what would now be the ruins of his birthplace.

Naruto just nodded numbly. The first hour of his travel was completely silent, Naruto did not feel like talking to Kurama right now, and the fox could sense it.

Off in the distance Naruto felt a very large chakra spike, followed by a rather large explosion. Naruto contemplated investigating when Kurama spoke up, **'Just keep moving, we don't need to deal with it, we just need to focus on getting to Konoha now.'**

Naruto was feeling in a rather spiteful mood, however, and began making his way towards the explosion. Kurama just sighed, it wasn't worth making the boy even more angry with her.

Meanwhile

Sarutobi Asuma was running through the land of Earth as fast as possible, trying to reach the land of fire . The reason being? He and his team of Jonin had a not so friendly altercation with some Iwa shinobi after they caught him trying to gather intel on the situation in the land of Earth. They had managed to defeat them, but ever since the fight, a pack of Zinra 'Hunters' as they had been dubbed, had begun trailing them. They were picked off one by one, until the team of four had now been reduced to just himself, and he wasn't fairing very well either. **"Katon: Haisekishō** **!"** (Fire Style: Ash Pile Burning) He shouted as a large cloud of ash spread throughout the forest, and soon after exploded, creating an artificial clearing in the forest.

Asuma was breathing heavily, he was probably one of the most equipped to fight the Zinra seeing as his chakra blades would slice through them easily enough. However, the hunters were too well hidden in the dark, and too fast for him to keep up with, so he had been resorting to using his jutsu to buy him enough time to get back to the land of Fire. Chakra exaughstion was a bitch though, he had one more jutsu in him before he collapsed and he was still a few miles away from the land of Fire, let alone any allies able to help him.

He was going to continue running, but stopped when he saw a pair of glowing yellow eyes in front of him. He turned to go another direction, but there was another set of yellow eyes. Everywhere he turned another pair of malicious pair of eyes stared him down, as if daring him to move.

Asuma let out an audible gulp. 'Well, pops, I guess I'll be seeing you sooner than I had expected... AND KURENAI WAS JUST WARMING UP TO ME!' Asuma thought to himself, having given up all hope for escape. In the blink of an eye one of the hunters leapt at him. Asuma just closed his eyes, took a deep breath and dropped his trench knives, preparing for death.

By this point, Naruto was watching from a distance. And while he wasn't particularly fond of Konoha shinobi, he wanted to test his skills against more of these Zinra. In a fraction of a second, Naruto dashed towards the beast, grabbed it in mid air, and slammed it as hard as he could into the ground. He grabbed one of Asuma's trench knives, funneled his wind element chakra into it, and stuck the blade in the beast's head. Immediately after the other Zinra tried to lunge at Naruto. He side stepped the first one, kicked a second one away, and grabbed a third by what looked to be it's throat. He added pressure around the things neck until a loud *SNAP* was heard, causing the thing in his hands to go limp. There were four of them now, all standing on one side of the boy, and let out a gutteral hiss.

Naruto's eyes narrowed, and as they began moving towards him, flashed through hand seals, **"Futon: Shinkuha!"** (Wind release: Vacuum Wave). The gigantic torrent of wind that Naruto let loose ripped three of them to pieces, while the fourth continued on it's course to slash Naruto. The boy anticipated this and sidestepped, follwed by an axe kick to the things back. The force behind the kick left cracks in the Earth, and even with the Zinra's regenerative properties, it had taken too much damage in too short an amount of time.

"So Konoha shinobi, how's the village?" Naruto asked with venom clear in his voice. Asuma was way too shocked to respond. These things had killed seasoned Jonin in less than a second, and this fifteen year old, very familiar looking, young boy had just killed five of them in no less than a minute.

Asuma finally found the strength to speak after several moments of silnce, "Not that I'm ungrateful for your help, but why are you out here? and why help me?"

Naruto just smirked, "Well, I need someone to tell me where you Konoha ninja are located nowadays, and you'll do just nicely!" He said as he disappeared in a flash, only to reappear behind Asuma and deliver a very harsh karate chop to his neck, knocking him out.


	11. Chapter 11

**Hey guys, here's the next chapter, If you like it or have criticism, leave a review please! Thanks guys, ~Howls Curse**

Asuma felt like he'd been on the receiving end of Gai's 'Hirudora' (Afternoon Tiger). It was most certainly not a pleasant feeling. He stood up and looked around to see where he was. He was in the land of Fire, just across the border from the land of Earth. He had a lot of questions, all of which would go unanswered for the time being.

Deciding not to count his blessings, he immediately began to head towards Konoha's new base of operations. Meanwhile, Naruto watched him from out of sight, and began tailing him. **'I know you don't want to do this, to see them again, but Danzo will pose a problem in the future. He was at the head of those that wanted you to be no more than a weapon for that infernal place, if word reaches him that you're alive, we'll have quite a few more problems than just the Zinra. Kill him.'** The last part sounding more like a command as opposed to a suggestion. Naruto was not really liking the Kurama that would bully him around. He didn't even sleep at all last night, just to escape having to deal with her. Naruto just sighed and went along with it.

Meanwhile, in Naruto's mindscape, Kurama began thinking to herself, ' **Why is he being so difficult? He's always done what I've asked him to do. What's changed?'** She was lost in thought for a while, **'Was it because I made him leave Hikari? She shouldn't be trusted anyways, and he should know that! Those Akatsuki bastards used him, just like Konoha wanted to!'** She paused for a moment. **'I'll have to talk to him later about it...'** She inwardly sighed.

Naruto had trailed Asuma to an old and abandoned Senju stronghold a several miles south of Konoha. He looked the place over, something was wrong... There were no guards to be found and the main gate looked like it had been completely smashed in. Seeing this, Asuma ran in to see what was happening.

Naruto had looked around for clues of what may be inside. He didn't find much, but there were scratch marks and a dead Anbu wearing a fox mask. He inspected the body, only to find no visible cause of death. Naruto just took a deep breath. **'It wouldn't be a bad idea to take his uniform. Running into that base looking like an Akatsuki wouldn't find you any allies.'** Kurama said to the boy. Naruto just nodded and put on his uniform. He unsheathed the Anbu's tanto curiously. He was absolutly intrigued by it. 'Maybe someone can teach me how to use this...' He thought to himself before sheathing it, and putting it on his back. He looked down at the Anbu on the ground once more. He was unique to say the least. She had red hair, and she didn't really look much older than him, yet she was in Anbu. 'Strange' was all that came to mind for Naruto.

Kurama however, was sweating, or whatever the Biju equivalent of sweating would be. That was CLEARLY an Uzumaki, and despite what Naruto thought, she was very much alive. She was debating whether or not she should tell Naruto. ' **He might look on me better if i tell him'** one part of her said. Meanwhile, the other part of her screamed, **'He doesn't need anyone but me, and I'm not going to let anyone get in the way of that!'** It was obvious which side had won when Naruto simply shrugged and walked towards the Senju stronghold.

He walked inside to see wreckage. The foyer had been ripped to pieces. Claw marks filled the room and the stench of blood was easily descernable in the air. He made his way through the facility without incident, he did find the occasional freshly killed Zinra, and he saw many bloodstains on the floor and the walls, but no bodies. The dead Zinra that he'd found had been chopped cleanly in half, so Naruto assumed it was the Konoha shinobi he'd followed back here. These Zinra also looked much weaker than the ones he'd encountered in the forest.

Eventually Naruto stumbled into another large room. At the far end of the room he could see that there was a large door that had been barricaded, and for good reason. On the other side of the door he could see what must have been a hundred Zinra all hissing and banging on the barricade, and judging based on the condition of the door, it was working. He also saw the Konoha shinobi from earlier trying to think of a plan.

A dull thud coud be heard from one of the walls of the room. A loud crash was heard as the wall near Asuma was broken through, sending rubble flying throughout the room. A Zinra that must have been ten times Naruto's size locked eyes with the now prone Asuma. The Konoha shinobi was barely able to dodge as its giant arm smashed the place that he had previously occupied.

Seeing this, Naruto didn't hesitate. He ran full speed up to the monster, which had just pulled its arm back up, and jumped into the air to deliver a kick straight to it's chest. It slid across the floor of the room, only now attracting the attention of a few of the smaller Zinra, and let out another great roar. "Listen, you handle the small ones, I'll take the big one, got it?" Naruto spoke monotonously to Asuma who just nodded dumbly.

The large Zinra began charging straight towards Naruto, while the boy prepared his next move. Just before the beast was about run him over, he jumped onto one of the many pillars in the room, and leapt from there onto the things shoulders. The beast reacted by trying to swat him off of it, but Naruto jumped onto it's head, while pulling out his tanto, and shoving it into the beasts eye. It let out a roar of pain, and tried to shake Naruto off. Naruto eventually lost his footing and fell off of it's head, but kept his hand firmly attached to the tanto in the beast's eye.

It opened it's mouth to bite him, but Naruto swung himself back on top of the thing. He funneled a little but of fire chakra into the blade, and it not only increased the pain felt by the beast, but melted the metal of the tanto, resulting in molten metal being lodged in this things head. It leat out another roar of pain, before Naruto funneled chakra into his fist, and brought int down on its head, over and over again, until a visible dent could be seen in its skull. Naruto jumped to the ground gracefully before it let out a low moan, and fell to the ground with a loud thud.

Naruto looked over to Asuma to see that he had handled about fifteen of the very small ones that had borken off from the group crowding the door, which now had large cracks in it. Asuma was breathing heavily yet again, 'Man Kurenai is right, i really need to give up smoking' He thought to himself. Naruto looked down at him for a moment, before speaking, "I'll handle them." Naruto said to the man. He held out the horse hand seal. **'Katon: Goukamekyaku!'** (Fire Style: Great Fire Anhilation) He said, as the room was filled with flames.

Once the fire died out, everything in the room had been left in ashes. The door was scorched, but none of the fire had gone therough the door. Asuma was absolutely blown away by not only the display of power, but by the control that was displayed. Naruto looked at the results of the jutsu that Kurama had taught him. He inwardly sighed, 'Maybe I've been too hard on Kura-chan lately... She only tries to protect me... I'll apologize to her once this is all sorted' he thought to himself. Kurama already knew what was going through his mind, and was happy that he'd come to his senses.

Naruto and Asuma slowly approached the door. On the other side some coughing was heard, before the door fell down on it's own, revealing a very exhausted and drained Kakashi. "Thanks for the assist, most of the genin and chunin are in here and we'll need some time to rest, but other than that we should be fine." The scarecrow said weakly, as though he hadn't eaten or slept in days, which was true.

"Kakashi, is Kurenai okay?" Asuma spoke as quickly as possible and in a worried tone. "She should be down there with Hinata, Kiba and Shino," Kakashi said before a pink haired teen walked up to him and looked at Asuma and Naruto. "I'll take some of the other chunin with me to go get whatever is left from the supply room, Asuma-sensei, you should come with us," She spoke. Asuma nodded, and left with the girl and a few other chunin, of which Naruto didn't care about.

The boy looked at Kakashi, "Where is Danzo?" At this Kakashi's laid back face quickly turned into a scowl. "He took my student, Satsuki, and his ROOT shinobi and left us to die after the Zinra broke through into the building."

"Do you know where he went?" Naruto asked with a bored expression. "Well there's only one place I can think of that he could possibly go to. An abandoned ROOT base about a mile south of Konoha's ruins. Why do you ask?" Kakashi said.

"I'm going to kill him, and his ROOT so that he can't mess with anyone's life ever again." Naruto said in a deathly serious tone. "Well I would accompany you, but I'm not going to be of much use in a fight right now, but I can help you find the base, Shinobi-san." The scarecrow said before going through handseals and summoning a dog, Pakkun. "Pakkun, follow Danzo's scent and lead this shinobi to Danzo, okay?" The dog just nodded and looked at Naruto.

"Thank you for saving us Shinobi-san, If you ever need anything, feel free to ask us and we'll do what we can." Kakashi said. "I probably won't be around to save your sorry asses next time, so stay hidden." Naruto said, unsure of why he was even telling these Konoha shinobi to be safe. **'For all I care, they can rot in hell...'** Kurama said in Naruto's mind. Naruto could only agree, but he decided that being nice was in his best interest right now.

Naruto turned to walk away, but was stopped when Kakashi cleared his throat. "What's your name Shinobi-san?" He said. The boy stopped and thought for a second before speaking, "My name is Arashi, goodbye Konoha shinobi." Naruto said before leaving with Pakkun.

'There's something familiar about him...' Kakashi thought to himself, but shrugged the thought away after his stomach growled and his eyes began to droop. 'I'll figure it out later' He thought lazily, before finding a place to sleep.


	12. Chapter 12

**Hey guys! ^-^ Here's chapter 12, leave a review and let me know what you thought xD Praise and Criticism are both appreciated, so please leave a review and if you like the whole fic, go ahead and follow it too!**

Naruto left the Senju compund, following the little dog that the scarecrow had sent with him. He began thinking on Konoha and her fate. What began as the world's largest super power had been brutally destroyed, and it's remnants scattered. 'They've gotten what they deserved, punishing them more would be pointless.' Naruto thought to himself.

Kurama still wanted all of their heads on a pike, but she could settle for the utter destruction of just about everything they held dear.

'Hey, Kura-chan... I'm sorry about how I was acting earlier, I was just mad that you wanted me to leave Hikari... She's been nothing but helpful to me and it felt wrong just leaving her like that...' Naruto said to Kurama in his head.

 **'It's alright Naruto-kun, I'm just trying to protect you. Hikari is dangerous, and sticking around her for longer than you have to is even more dangerous. She kills people for fun, that's not someone you want to be around.'** Kurama responded, as hypocritical as it may be.

Naruto just nodded. He felt better knowing that Kurama was looking out for him.

A while later, Pakkun finally lead Naruto to what looked to be a bunker hidden in a dense patch of forest. **'There are a lot of chakra signatures coming from inside, too many to count and most are low Jonin level'** Kurama said to naruto.

Naruto nodded to the dog, to which he nodded back, and poofed back into the world of summons. Kurama pointed Naruto in the diretion of the external guards. He took them out quickly, and without a sound.

He walked up to the main entrance to the bunker. He saw a very complex seal on the door and thought to himself for a moment. 'Kurama, it's only polite to knock isn't it?' Kurama inwardly smirked as Naruto channeled chakra into his arms and sent the giant door flying off of it's hinges. Immediately after, red lights began going off inside the bunker.

Within thirty seconds, ROOT shinobi came into view. Naruto just cracked his knuckles, and Kurama sent some of her chakra to Naruto. 'You think they'll be a challenge?' Naruto said to Kurama. **'Probably not'** She giggled.

Naruto leapt into the middle of the group of ROOT ninja, their moves were refined but WAY too predictable. It was like he was fighting robots that were programmed to fight. After taking out at least fifty of them and making his way through the majority of the base, another squad of ROOT engaged him, but two of them were different than the others. **'One of them is an Aburame, I can sense his insects, the other could be a Yamanaka but I'm not too sure. Their chakra signatures are large enough to be elite Jonin.'** Kurama said.

The first of the ROOT, along with the possible Yamanaka engaged him in taijutsu, while the Aburame was preparing something. He punched one of the root in the face, cracking his mask to reveal a broken and bloody face before the tool fell to the ground. Naruto ducked to dodge a kick, spun around swept his opponent off of his feet, followed up by grabbing his neck mid-air and slamming him as hard as he could into the ground, leaving a bloody mess in the crater below him. The potential Yamanaka dashed towards the boy, and kicked him up in the air. Naruto did a flip and used his chakra to stick himself to the ceiling. Upon seeing an incoming wave of projectile weapons went through handseals. **'Futon: Daitoppa'** The weapons were blown back at their owners, and the force of the jutsu shook the entire base.

 **'Shintenshin no Jutsu'** Naruto heard, he tried to dodge, but his feet were stuck. Insects had been placed there by the Aburame around the same time the fight started. After this realization he was hit with the Jutsu.

 _Meanwhile in Naruto's mindscape_

Yamanaka Fu was moving through the boys mindscape. His was different than most, most people had very open and weak mindscapes, but his was ridiculously defended. One wrong turn later, he wound up in Kurama's living space. Kurama sensed his presence and closed the entrance behind him, and then transformed into he Biju form, letting out a grin at seeing the Yamanaka. **'Hehehe, think you can take over MY Naruto-kun's body, huh? Well, you'll have to beat me first!'** Kurama gave out an insane laugh, and the poor Yamanak let out an audible gulp as an emotion he hadn't felt in years began to resurface. Fear.

 _Back in reality_

Naruto let out a dark chuckle, even though the insects latched onto his feet were also draining his chakra and poisoning him at the same time, the effects he felt were almost none due to Kurama's chakra. Naruto flared his chakra, causing the bugs at his feet to explode due to the increased amount of demonic chakra on their tiny bodies.

Naruto shot from the ceiling straight at the Aburame, who had no time to move, and engaged him in taijutsu. The Aburame was not alone, so what would've been an overwhelming assualt was reduced to a devastating one. The two other ROOT shinobi lunged at Naruto the second they realised the plan had failed.

Even in a three on one fight, they still were no match. The first drew his tanto and tried to swipe at Naruto. The boy caught the blade, and pulled the mans intestines from his stomach, a foul stench was immediately apparent afterwards. The second, unphased by the brutal death of his comrade, tried to buy his team leader some more time. **'Doton:Doryuheki'** (Earth style: Earth wall) he said as a thick wall of rock seperated Naruto from the Aburame and the ROOT shinobi. They waited for a little while, and when seemingly nothing happened, they were puzzled. The confusion of the last ROOT shinobi was easily replaced by suprise when his wall of rock was kicked from its base and went straight through the bunker, headed right towards him and their reinforcements.

It crushed them, and Naruto walked over their corpses. He heard ragged breathing from the Aburame, who had miraculously managed to survive the ordeal. The boy would rectify that. He placed his foot on the Aburame's neck and crushed his wind pipe in one motion. The life leaving the last remaining ROOT shinobi.

Noramlly killing people like this would make Naruto sick, but during the course of his training, he had become desensitised to killing. Kurama had also begun exposing him to more of her chakra, making him slowly more demonic over time. Something Naruto was unaware of.

Naruto finally reached the final chamber in this abominable base. Naruto tried to open the door but sighed when he found it locked. He kicked the door open and walked in lazily. In the back of the room he could see Danzo sitting at his desk, a blank expression on his face and a very angry looking girl strapped to the chair across from him. "Your shinobi really need to step up their game, they were way too predictable." Naruto said with a smirk.

Danzo frowned. This opponent was very strong. All of his shinobi were dead. Things were not looking up for the old warhawk. "Unfortunately for you, boy, I will succeed were my pawns have failed."

"Succeed my ass," Naruto said with a smirk on his face as he appeared behind Danzo and drove his fist into the old man's skull.

"Look out behind you!" The young woman said. Naruto was intelligent enough not to question and dodged. Danzo had appeared behind him and had prepared to slit the boys throat had he not been warned beforehand.

After the invasion of Konoha, Danzo had stepped up his game tremendously, mostly due to the fact that he only had five, now four, intact sharingan remaining due to Zinra attacks, but they would still suffice for this battle.

Naruto went through hand seals, **"Doton: Wareme Otoshiama"** he said as a hole appeared in the ground below Danzo. It was very narrow and about a hundred feet deep. There was no way Danzo could get out in time after he heard, " **Doton: Wareme Tsubusu"** which caused the walls of the already narrow chasm to close and turn Danzo into paste.

Naruto sensing an attack coming from his side stepped back just in time to dodge what would've been a lethal attack from danzo, and grabbed him by his robes, only to fling him full force into the nearest wall.

Danzo reappeared at the door to his chamber and went through hand seals, **"Futon: Daitoppa".** Naruto responded in kind, **"Doton: Doryuheki"** As a wall of rock took the force of the explosive winds that Danzo had let loose. Naruto lowered the wall and ran at Danzo, who began charging at him as well. Danzo threw a few kunai before the two would reach, forcing Naruto to dodge, but not in the way he was expecting. The boy jumped over his kunai and began a forwards spin. By the time the two would reach, Naruto had brought his leg down in a massively powerful kick that filled the room with rock and dust.

Danzo again reappeared and kicked the boy into the wall of his chamber. He immediately went through hand seals **'Futon: Shinkyugaku'** Multiple bullets of wind were sent towards Naruto. Danzo, who had now rid himself of the bandages that covered most of his body, could tell that the jutsu had connected. That's when he felt it. The chakra of the Kyubi. If Danzo were a lesser man he would've caved under the KI. By now the girl in the chair had gotten out of her restraints and activated her own Sharingan. Distracted by the KI and a new opponent, Danzo was caught completely off-guard when Naruto, covered in Kurama's chakra and missing his mask, pounced on him and wrapped his hands around his neck. The heat of his now clawed hands burned him instantly, and soon he began to disintigrate, until nothing was left but ash.

So was the end of Danzo cloak of demonic chakra slowly faded and Satsuki Uchiha looked at the boy that had just saved her life, and he looked back at her. Right into her Sharingan eyes. She looked so familiar. That's when thoughts of Izumi began to resurface in his mind. 'Izumi?' He thought to himself. Immediately, Naruto held his head in pain. He needed to leave.

Just as the Uchiha was about to speak, Naruto shunshined to the one of the very few places that he was familiar with in the vacinity. The place where he spent the majority of his young childhood. Training ground 44, better known as the Forest of Death, had been cut in half due to being on the outskirts of a wasteland made by the Zinra that was once Konoha.

Naruto walked through the forest, most of it was exactly the way he had remmbered it from when he was just a kid, and headed towards the former residence of the only person he would ever even consider a friend from Konoha. Anko Mitarashi.


	13. Chapter 13

**Hey guys! Sorry for the late chapter O.o hope you guys enjoy! Remember to leave a review, I accept everything from criticism to praise. ~Howl's Curse**

Naruto had been laying low in Anko's old hideout in the forest of death. Anything of value to Naruto had been moved out of the hideout before he had even arrived. He had been spending the majority of his time in the forest resting, spending quality time with Kurama and gathering food. The attack that Danzo had landed on him had healed by now, and Kurama had made him forget about the Uchiha he had seen in Danzo's base.

 **'We have to get moving soon kit, maybe we'll find a clue as to what exactly is happening with the Zinra in Konoha, it seems that is where their threat truly started.'** Kurama said. Naruto agreed, and began packing food for a week. He had found an old ANBU mask hidden in one of Anko's drawers, and put it on. The mask was in the shape of a dog. Naruto just shrugged and put it on. Some form of identity concealment was better than none after all.

He then made a make shift cloak and wrapped it around himself, preparing to walk into the wasteland that was his former home. Naruto sighed. He really didn't want to go, but if he wanted to find out how the Zinra threat began, he would need to.

He reached the edge of the wasteland and looked around. He could see the old entrance to Konoha from the forest of death of in the distance, tiny as it may look. He took his first step onto the dust like substance at his feet. It felt, odd. Even with shoes on he could feel the softness of the material. It left little tingles all over his feet, something he had not noticed his last time on the stuff. He began walking towards his destination, and old memories from Konoha began to assault his mindm but he steeled his resolve.

Naruto finally made it to the village, and it looked like a destroyed/abandoned village should. Demolished houses, no doubt the result of the fight between the remainder of the third Hokage's anbu and the first Zinra. The dust substance was everywhere, on every surface possible, and the scariest thing? The things it touched slowly began to disintigrate. At this Naruto flipped out, he looked down at his ninja sandals to see that they had become about half as thick as they were at the beginning of his trek. **"It seems that when this dust comes into non-organic material it slowly converts it to this dust. Konoha has been like this for years, so whatever is left must be eroding at a really fast rate. If there was a clue here for us, we might be too late."** Naruto let out a sigh of relief, trusting that the dust would not in fact disingtigrate him.

'We should look at the Hokage tower first, that was the most secure building in the village, that's probably where the Hokage made his last stand.' Naruto said to Kurama in his mind. And in fact he was correct. It seemed that different materials disintegrated at different rates as well. The reson being that the third Hokage's signature windmill shuriken could be seen stuck in the ground and on some buildings near the Hokage tower. They had dulled and rusted, but they were still here despite the years of erosion they had been exposed to.

Naruto walked up to the main entrance of the Hokage tower. It had been barred, but clearly broken into. If Naruto was not entirely on his guard before, he was now. He slowly worked his way up to the Hokage's office, clearing every room as he went, only to find them empty. The once very barricaded office had a door that was off of it's hinges. Blood stains were all over the walls, but no bodies were present.

Soon after Naruto began inspecting the office he found something off. A painting on one of the walls had been almost entirely eroded. Naruto remebered that painting. It was of the fourth Hokage and his wife. But the fact that it had eroded was not the thing that felt off, it was the outline of what looked like a safe on the other side of the now very thin paper.

Naruto removed the painting from the wall and took a quick look at the safe. It wasn't very large, but the locking mechanism was complex as hell. Seals even covered the safe protecting it from chakra so that it wouldn't break open unless a person with chakra equal to that of a bijuu channeled fire nature chakra into it and exhausted themselves. That would've been an option for Naruto had he not been in hostile territory.

The boy mulled over his options however, and decided to search the room for clues, but found nothing. Naruto thought to the painting on the wall. 'Maybe it was the day that the fourth died sealing Kurama away into me.' Naruto thought. He slowly entered a conbination on to the lock. 10-10. Naruto heard a click. 'Alright! First try.' Naruto thought to himself as he opened the safe to reveal it's contents, only to panic as fire seals along the inner walls of the safe began to activate. He used his chakra to enhance his speed one-hundred fold and grabbed them before the seals went off.

Immediately after the usage of his chakra, he heard a loud roar from outside and a great rumble in the Earth. 'Fuck!' Naruto thought to himself angrily. He quickly pocketed the file and scroll that were inside the safe and made his way to the roof. As he looked around he saw two things. The first of which, was the absolutely gigantic Zinra barreling towards him. It was several times larger than the Hokage tower, and looked as though it could punch through the Hokage monument itself.

Speaking of the Hokage monument, hundreds, if not thousands of Zinra were pouring out of the Hokage monument, again heading straight towards him.

 **'If it wasn't already obvious, I think it's our time to leave.'** Kurama said as Naruto immediately leapt off of the hokage monument moving back towards Konoha's northern gate. The only clear obstacle in his path was the gigantic Zinra that was now ridiculously close to the boy.

'It's faster than I gave it credit for' Naruto thought to himself as he dodged a gigantic swing from the monster and began running towards the gate as quickly as he could. Unfortunately for him, the behemoth was able to keep up with him, even at the incredible speeds that Naruto was capable of. By the time Naruto had exited Konoha he had come to the realization that this thing was actually faster than him in an open sprint.

 **'You're going to have to fight it Naruto-kun, make it quick though we don't have a lot of time though.'** Kurama said. Naruto just sighed, this was not going to be an easy fight by any means.

Naruto turned around, only to be greeted with the sight of a giant arm making it's way down towards the young man, who quickly moved out of it's way. Naruto leapt onto it's shoulder and quickly began moving towards it's head. About half way there however, he felt something move underneath the Zinra's skin and then pain in his left leg. A black tendril had shot from the skin of this thing and pierced all the way through Naruto's leg.

Naruto quickly ripped the tendril from his leg, only to begun falling to the ground due to the lack of support from his left leg. The Zinra just took it's fist and began to wind up for a giant swing at the falling jinchuriki.

Naruto went through hand seals, and kurama pumped as much chakra as she could into his his chakra system. **'Futon: Shinkyugaku'** Naruto shouted as a continuous stream of wind blew out from his mouth and lopped of the arm that the zinra was going to use to pummel him into dust.

After Naruto hit the ground rather roughly, and the giant Zinra had finished screaming out in pain, Naruto again started going through hand seals. 'This is going to have to work, otherwise we'll be forced fighting all of the Zinra...' He thought as he was about to try a jutsu he had been practicing for a while now.

 **"Kuuton: Sanbika seijō-ki** **"** (Sky release: Hymn Purifier) He said as a giant wave of black wind decapitated the giant beast sending it hurdling to the ground, dead. Naruto was panting. This was not good. He could barely move, and the wound on his leg was very serious, even Kurama's chakra would have trouble healing that in a week, let alone the maybe five minutes he had before the rest of the Zinra were on him.

He looked at the now decapitated head of the giant Zinra, and saw what looked to be a very disfigured Hiruzen Sarutobi's face squished between the otherwise mutated flesh of the beast. Naruto felt no remorse for the old man however, and couldn't even if he wanted to. He needed to move.

No matter how hard he tried he couldn't quite get away from the incoming swarm of Zinra with his wounded leg. He stopped moving when he saw another swarm of Zinra coming towards him from the North, and smaller groups coming in from the East and West. He was surrounded.

'Well, It looks like we're fighting...' Naruto said to himself, not sure of how this fight was going to play out. **'Worst case scenario I can give you my chakra and have you slaughter them all with it...'** Kurama said to him, to which he just said, 'That risks bringging more of the big ones to us. I have to do this without an excessive amount of chakra potent enough to be felt all the way across the Elemental Nations.'

The Zinra had now fully surrounded him. The warped faces of dead shinobi buried in the flesh of these things was enough to unnerve Naruto a little bit, but he slowly steeled his resolve. Once he had been fully surrounded, and Naruto could see nothing but Zinra, they pounced all at once.

Naruto smirked, the battle was hard pressed he dodged every attack and responded with a perfect and lethal counter, but every time he killed one another took its place. One by one the Zinra fell until the number of about 5,000 corrupted chakra signatures became 2, 500. Naruto was exaughsted now though, and on his wounded leg wouldnt be able to continue much longer.

He grit his teeth, knowing what he was about to do would be a huge gamble. He couldnt use Kurama's chakra because that was sure to alert the rest of the Zinra in the land of Fire to his presence, the only other option he had that could deal with them and NOT draw the attention of every opponent from Earth country to Snow country was...

 **"Kumiawase Jutsu: Kasai Tatsumaki!"** (Combination jutsu: Fire Tornado) Naruto shouted. Suddenly the wind in the area began to pick up as a giant tornado forced all the zinra skywards. Naruto, who was standing at the eye of the tornado shouted, **"KATSU"** As the tornado burst into flame, leaving a completely exhausted, and partially fried Naruto laying on the ground in the middle of the wasteland. He gave out a small chuckle as he passed out, face laying in the dust.

 _Meanwhile_

Hikari, who had been tracking/stalking Naruto now for a while had finally caught up with him. But when she saw the giant pillar of flame light up in the middle of the wasteland, she was a tad worried. **No one** came back from the wasteland. Anyone who even tried never returned uninfected.

She rushed to find him. Just as he was within sight, she could also see a team of kunoichi from Takigakure (Hidden Waterfall) pick him up and begin running away with him.

'OH HELL NO' Hikari thought to herself as she gave chase.

In Kusagakure no Sato (Hidden Grass Village)

A red haired teenaged girl was kneeling in the office of the Sato-osa's (Village leader's) office. "Osa-sama, I'm sorry I failed you, Satsuki had been taken by Danzo, and I was poisoned by one of those damnable ROOT shinobi and left to die. They even took my Anbu gear..." The girl said in clear dissapointment with herself.

"It's alright Karin, Kakashi just informed the village leaders that Danzo had been killed and he had been appointed the new Sato-osa for the remnants of Konoha. It seems as though Satsuki was present for his death, but that's about it. I'll have to get some answers from her when we see her next..." A firm feminine voice said from behind the Kusagakure Sato-osa desk. "Now I want you to gear up and send this message to Kakashi. Take Kin and Suigetsu with you as back up and report to me with Kakashi's response as soon as possible." She continued.

Karin nodded. "Yes Izumi-sama."

 **That'll do it for chapter thirteen! I'll see you guys next time :P**


	14. Chapter 14

**Hey guys, I know it's been forever but after fighting through my writer's block I finally have another Chapter for ya!**

Fū was running through the land of fire with her new tream during a reconnosaince mission on what other shinobi had dubbed, 'The Nest'. The Nest was one of the largest known gathering of Zinra to date, and was located inside the ruins of Konoha. The few scouting teams that had survived a mission into the nest had reported multiple thousands on the surface and an uncountable number underneath the village itself. A few things interrupted that mission however. The first of which, was the ridiculous number of Zinra moving across the wasteland in Fire country. The second was the giant spike of chakra, and then an even larger one, and the resultant tornado of flame that shot up afterwards.

Fū's team decided to investigate, and when they arrived, they were shocked. In the middle of a sea of ash and charred Zinra was a boy, not much older than herself, covered in ash and Zinra dust only barely visible to Fū's eyes. His chakra was so low, he should've been dead. Next to him was the remains of an Anbu mask laying on the ground next to him, slowly dissolving into dust. **'Fū, that boy has some Bijuu chakra stored within him, I think he's a jinchuriki.'** Chomei said inside Fū's mind, much to her suprise. Even though she'd been much more out and about since the Zinra became a very real threat, she'd never seen another of her kind before.

"There's an S-ranked chakra signature headed our way!" Said Mirika, the team's sensor. "Yahoo! I've been itching for a fight ever since we got out of Taki! This will be fun." A purple haired Kunoichi said. "Anko now is not the time for this, there are multiple Zinra chakra signatures closing in on us now as well. We need to leave, now." Mirika said forcefully.

"What about him?" Fū said pointing towards the boy in the dust. "He's dead, there's no use crying over more dead people. Let's go." Mirika said now with a hint of nervousness. Fū looked at the boy in the dust and saw his chest moving up and down, softly breathing."He's breathing still! and he's a jinchuriki too!" Fū replied sternly.

At this Anko just sighed and ran over to the boy, and picked him up, 'A jinchuriki all the way out here, huh? I wonder which village he came from.' She thought to herself, not even spending the time to remove the dust from the boy's body. "Well, if you say he's a jinchuriki he's worth something to someone, let's take him back to the village. Chinami-sama will want him." Anko said, while motioning the others to leave.

They had been travelling towards Takigakure for a while now, and the S-ranked ninja was still on their tail, and even gaining ground. The Zinra were off of their trail now however, so they decided to double time it to get back to the village in time.

 _Meanwhile_

Hikari had been chasing these 'bitches' for hours now, while she was still physically fine, her anger had grown to an uncontrollable amount. Her KI was probably thick enough to feel. But there was no one left to direct it at, because the Taki kunoichi had disappeared somewhere in the vicinity of what Kakuzu had determined to be Takigakure. 'FUCK' Hikari thought to herself. 'This is only a minor setback! I'll find a way into Taki, kill all of those bitches, and take Naruto-kun back with me, whether he wants to or not!'

 _In Taki_

Anko rushed the boy to the hospital, his armor had been dissolved by the dust, and all that was left were his black shirt and pants. The nurses took him and Anko left. They cleaned him off, and discovered that along with a few minor burns, the biggest problem was his chakra depletion. He needed rest.

Fū, unlike Anko, wanted to see the only person she even had a chance of relating to in terms of her tenant, and was stuck somewhere between nervous and excited that she'd finally get to be around another Jinchuriki. She decided to keep watch over him until he woke up.

 _Meanwhile_

"We need to place a control seal on the boy now! If he's a jinchuriki, we could use him to not only to protect the village, but make it truly great again." Said an old woman, presumably a Takigakure council member.

"We can't just do that, we don't know who he is or which tailed beast he holds just yet, not to mention the fact that he's not going to want to help us if we hold him here against his will." Said Shibuki, the current leader of Takigakure.

"You all can't seriously be considering forcing a jinchuriki, of whom we have no information on, into fighting for us. He could be a Jinchuriki from Kumo for all we know. The last thing we need are more enemies." Shibuki again said with a bit of conviction.

The group of council members just held their heads down. A young, blue haired kunoichi stood up from her council seat and spoke up. "Those... Things are out there, and they've been coming ever closer to discovering our location. It's only a matter of time before they do. What happens when they find the hero's water? We cannot allow ourselves to be pushed back any further. It's time to act and fight once more, to defend our families, no matter the cost." At this, the Taki council looked invigorated.

"Fine then, we take a vote. All in favor of branding the boy with the seal." Shibuki said. All but one council member, Shibuki's personal advisor, raised their hands.

"Fine... Someone will need to fetch Kuyo-sama for the sealing. Chinami-san, since you seem to be the one that wants this the most, you handle it. I need a drink..." Shibuki said, yet again disappointed in his council.

 _2 days later_

Naruto opened his eyes again after spending the last few days resting in his mindscape with Kurama. Naruto couldn't really explain it, but Kurama made him feel something he'd never really felt before. It was weird, but a good weird, in Naruto's opinion. Kurama felt these emotions coming from her host. She was more than relieved, she was elated, ecstatic almost. But she didn't express that to Naruto quite yet. She knew what he was feeling, and decided that it would be for the best not to distract him with it for now, at least until he was safe.

The young man sat up in his bed and began to look around the room. There was a girl with green hair and dark skin laying on the side of the bed, fast asleep. It was dark outside, and moonlight was visible from where he was currently sitting.

His mind immediately moved to finding the scroll and folder that he'd found in Konoha, but he knew he wouldn't find them here. He was about to move when he finally felt a chakra cuff on his arm, connecting him to the bed he was laying in. 'Well that's problematic' Naruto thought to himself. He couldn't access his chakra without alerting whoever put the cuffs on him, and having whatever chakra he would've used absorbed into the cuff.

He sighed and laid back down. 'I knew I should have studied seals when I was training with Oriko-se-... Akatsuki' He mentally corrected. He heard footsteps from outside his room and decided he'd pretend to be asleep in an attempt to find an opportunity to escape.

 _Outside of Naruto's room_

"Why do we have to be the ones to take the Jinchuuriki to the sealing site? They could've given this job to some genin for a D-ranked mission. Tch." Said a rather annoyed Mitarashi Anko, not too pleased with the idea of turning the Jinchuuriki into a slave to begin with. "Because that is what Chinami-sama requested of us. I would remind you not to question Chinami-sama, seeing as you do owe her your life." Answered Mirika, who wasn't too pleased with Anko's seemingly ceaseless complaining.

Mirika opened the door to Naruto's room to see a still asleep Naruto and a just now waking Fuu. "What's going on?" Fuu said fighting down a yawn. "The council has called Fuyo-sama back from his hut on the outskirts of the village. He is to be sealed." Mirika answered. Fuu looked less than pleased. She knew what seal they meant. It was the same seal that was keeping her here now.

Anko looked at the boy intently. She hadn't really looked at him before, but he looked very familiar. 'Is that Anko?' Naruto thought to himself after feeling the chakras in the room. Kurama took this as an opportunity to break down his bond with Anko. **'She's taking you to be turned into a servant for this puny village. I've told you. Humans are trash, they will always betray you.'** Naruto was seething. He didn't want to believe what Kurama was saying. But time and time again she had been right. He wasn't going to put up with humans anymore. He really was beginning to change at his core, Kurama could sense it, and she was proud of it. Now he was one step closer to truly only being loyal to her.

Mirika undid the chakra restraints, and was about to pick him up when naruto sent a tiny amount of wind chakra to knock over a vase by the window to his room. The resulting crash made everyone in the room look over at it for a split second. In that split second Naruto had vanished in a shunshin. "Shit! Sound the alarm!" Anko yelled.

Mirika just looked out the window and reached out with her chakra. She shunshined to where she felt the jinchuriki's chakra, only to wind up being immediately knocked out by Naruto as soon as she appeared, and placed in a trash can.

Naruto used a Henge to transform into the kunoichi he had just knocked out, and began to gather intel on his belongings.

 _Meanwhile_

 _Sealing Site_

Akira Chinami was standing next to Shibuki watching their sealmaster, Elder Fuyo, as he slowly began to undo the seals on the items found on the jinchuriki. If they'd been left in the Zinra dust for any longer, they would've disintegrated, but fortunately for them, not too much of the dust had gotten on the boys belongings. After Fuyo had opened the seal on the folder, he handed it to Akira and Shibuki to read, then moved to the scroll. Akira pulled out the file in the folder. It was information on Konoha's missing Jinchuriki. "Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto... The Fourth Hokage sealed the Kyubi into his own son, huh?" Shibuki said contemplatively. "It would seem as though the boy we've found is Konoha's long missing jinchuriki, and the progeny of the Fourth Hokage. It would seem we've hit the jackpot." said Akira.

"Now that is something I can use to get Naruto-kun to come to me." Said a female voice from the shadows of the sealing area. Hikari stepped into the dimly lit sealing area and gave Akira and Shibuki an insane smile. Immediately, six Takigakure ANBU began to circle around their leaders.

"If you hand it over now... I'll make your sacrifice to Jashin-sama painless..." She said slowly and in an almost seductive tone as she traced her pike around her lips..

An ANBU came up behind her and stabbed her in the back, the blade being clearly seen on the other side of her body. At this the Taki shinobi relaxed and Akira even smirked a bit. Until Hikari reached around her body and grabbed the ANBU's arm, picking him up and throwing him into the ground. Followed by a squelch as her pike found itself lodged in the man's neck.

"It's been too long since I've sacrificed anyone anyways!" Hikari said as she began running towards the group of ANBU. She pulled her scythe back and rammed it into the closest ANBU. They weren't ready for such an exotic weapon to be used against them. They were barely able to block, and as a result her scythe ripped into their arm. Hikari dodged a vertical strike from another ANBU and sweeped their feet out from under them. She pulled her scythe out from the first ANBU and beheaded the one that was on the ground, ignoring several strikes from the other ANBU's weapons.

She then jumped into the air and exteded her scythe to cleave into to two unsuspecting ANBU. Just as she reached the peak of her jump, she heard " **Suiton: Suiryudan no Jutsu"** as a large dragon made of water barreled towards her. She twisted out of the way of the jutsu, and threw her pike at the ANBU that had just finished the jutsu. It pierced right through their armor and found itself embedded into it's targets stomach.

Hikari landed a decent distance away from the rest of the ANBU. Akira had spent this time analyzing her potential opponent, and Shibuki didn't feel quite prepared to fight an opponent on this level, so he relegated himself to watching the battle. At this point Fuyo had stepped away from the scroll, seeing that he would be needed to help fight whoever this was.

"You guys really are weak aren't you..." Hikari said in the middle of a fake yawn. The ANBU grit their teeth and were about to re-engage when Fuyo stepped in front of them, with his quarterstaff held in a combat position. "Ohoh, are you actually going to prove a worthy opponent old man?" Fuyo smirked and steadied his resolve, "I'll go in first, you wait for an opportunity to strike." He said to the ANBU. "Akira, get Shibuki out of here, you two are too important to be put in danger. Take the scroll and folder with you."

Akira hesitantly agreed and fled with Shibuki. "I will kill them you know?" Hikari said to the bald old man of seventy or eighty years of age. "Not without killing me first." He said sternly before rushing Hikari. They clashed back and forth for a while, even in his advanced state of age he was still very fast, and it proved difficult for Hikari to keep up with him. Eventually though, she landed a strike across his abdomen. She smirked, as she began to draw Jashin's symbol on the ground below her feet. "Now!" said the wounded ANBU as his comrades began flashing through hand signs. Hikari licked the blood on the end of her scythe, and smirked. **"Suiton: Suidan no Jutsu!"** (Water style: Water bullet jutsu) The two ANBU shouted together and fired two high powered water bullets at hikari. The resulting dust cloud after their jutsu hit where their target was, was enough to convince them of victory.

Elder Fuyo smiled at his comrades one last time before he fell over dead, with holes in his chest and bruising all over his body. Hikari's scythe came flying out of the dust cloud, killing the two ANBU that shot the jutsu at her.

Hikari laughed maniacly. She looked down at the now on his knees last ANBU. "It's your lucky day. Normally I'd make you suffer for making my job harder, but I have to go get Naruto-kun's present." She lifted up her scythe and brought it down on his skull, causing a bit of blood to splash onto her smiling face.

She looked at the body of the now dead seal master and came upon the ingredients and instructions on the seal Fuyo had prepared for Naruto. Hikari smiled madly. This was precisely what she was looking for.

Hikari began following the tracks of the two that had her Naruto-kun's present. With any luck on her part, she'd get to take Naruto-kun back home with her willingly. But even if he didn't want to, he would be hers.

 _Meanwhile_

 _Kusagakure_

"Kakashi has agreed to meet you personally to discuss the terms of the arrangment Osa-sama. He said he would come here within a few days." Karin said. Izumi looked pleased. "Then they really are that deperate... Good. You and your squad may take the rest of the day off. You are dismissed." As Karin and her team left Izumi's office. She spoke once more. Seemingly to no one. "Why are you here... Jiraiya?"

 **Well, I'll try to update soon. See you around guys. :P**

 **Also, don't forget to leave a review. I'm interested to see what you all think. XD**

 **~Howl's Curse**


	15. Chapter 15

**_Hey guys! I was able to power through my writers block pretty quickly this time, and I was able to finish up a new chapter for ya! Thanks for reading! Enjoy :P_**

 ** _~Howl's Curse_**

 _Takigakure_

Alarms were blaring everywhere in Taki. This seemed a bit excessive for him alone. All of the shinobi were getting ready for a fight, and all of the civilians were nowhere to be found. 'Kurama, what's happening?' Naruto asked. **'It would seem that Hikari has followed us here. For what reason, I don't know, but that chakra is definetely hers.'** Naruto again was conflicted. Kurama could sense it. Naruto could feel a dull pain in his head. **'Go find what we took from Konoha, and use Hikari as a distraction to leave.'** Naruto shook his head and sighed. He still wasn't quite over his chakra exaustion he probably wouldn't be able to fight his way out of here alone. Kurama was right. Even if there was a part of him that didn't want to leave Hikari for a second time.

He slowly stepped out of the shadows, still henged, and began trying to gather intel on his belongings. He began reaching out with his senses until he heard something that would help him in his search. "Akira and Osa-sama were attacked, they should be headed to the council building for protection." The village leader MUST know where his objective was, but he was also probably in the most heavily fortified building in the village.

When he arrived at the council building, he was suprised to see that the building had already been breached and that the guards on the outside of the building had all been shredded to pieces. 'Hikari no doubt.' He thought to himself. He dropped his henge and moved in as quickly and quietly as possible.

When he first began hearing the maniacal laughter, that's when he knew for sure that this was Hikari's doing. At this point however, Taki shinobi had taken notice as to the state of their council building and were now storming the place as quickly as possible. Naruto created a couple of shadow clones as a distraction, but soon began to regret that descision as his vision began to blur due to his current physical state. Kurama began feeding him some of her chakra. He wouldn't be able to hide very well anymore, but at least he could fight decently.

Naruto moved further into the base and his clones moved to intercept the incoming Taki shinobi.

 _Meanwhile_

 _With Hikari_

Hikari began to chuckle a bit, she could now feel Naruto's presence. He was close. 'Now all i need to do is finish these worms off.' She thought to herself as she chopped down one of the very few remaining shinobi guarding Akira and Shibuki.

The Taki shinobi were visibly gritting their teeth in anger. Nothing they did seemed to be working. Even Akira, whose doujutsu gave her an almost eidetic memory, still couldn't find an answer to the problem to the insane Jashinist in front of them.

The two remaining Jonin charged her simultaneously and managed to wrap her up in some ninja wire. Hikari wasn't amused. She twisted her body in ways that seemed impossible and managed to grab the wire that each of the shinobi was holding on to. She funneled some chakra into her nails, and sliced the wire clean through. Both shinobi fell to the floor in suprise, as Hikari broke free and ripped out one of their beating hearts.

The other, shocked, wasn't able to get out of the way of Hikari's scythe as it ripped her guts out.

Needless to say that Shibuki had just about shit his pants in fear, and Akira wasn't doing much better. "Hand over the scroll and the folder. Now." Shibuki grabbed the items that she wanted and began walking towards her, much to Akira's displeasure.

As soon as Shibuki handed her the items, Hikari smiled. "Thank you so much" She said giddy, as she wrapped her free hand around his neck and crushed his windpipe. Akira did not look suprised. Shibuki was always a coward. In her mind that was karma biting him in the ass. As soon as she pocketed the items. She began moving towards a tensed up Akira. Right before they were about to clash however, Naruto kicked down the door to the office.

"Ah, Naruto-kun. It's good to see you again. But this time, I have a present for you." She said as she pulled out the folder and scroll from her bag just long enough for Naruto to recognize that those were the things he was looking for.

Hikari was helping him. Even after he left her like that. Naruto was conflicted yet again. Kurama had made it clear that she wasn't to be trusted, but yet again Hikari had helped him. Kurama was also conflicted. Hikari had something that they needed, and Naruto was in no position to fight her over it, so she decided yet again, that it would be okay for Naruto to temporarily be around Hikari again, but she wasn't going to allow her to get close to him again.

Kurama didn't like it, but she'd let Hikari stick around Naruto until she did something that would allow her to push them apart. 'Kurama, what should I do?' Naruto asked. His clones had just dispersed, and he knew they didn't have much time before they had to leave. **'Take her with you and get out of here...'** Kurama said with a sigh of defeat. Naruto perked up a bit. "Hikari, we have to go. Leave her and let's get out of here together." He said motioning for her to come with him.

Hikari for her part was ecstatic seeing that Naruto wanted her to come with him. Even if she wanted to complete her rituals to Jashin, she was compelled to follow Naruto out of Taki.

Naruto created one more Kage Bunshin and had it stand next to a wall leading out of the building. **"Bunshin Daibakuha!"** He shouted as the clone exploded, ripping a huge hole in the wall. Hikari and Naruto jumped out through the window and carved a path out of Taki.

 _Meanwhile_

 _Kusagakure_

Jiraiya stood in Izumi's office. His facial hair had become a scraggy mess. Jiraiya didn't take Naruto's disappearance/death well, add onto that the destruction of Konoha and the old sage had lost his sense of purpose. That is until recently anyways. "You told everyone he was dead... why?" He asked in a low voice.

"I have no idea what you're talking about Jiraiya-" Izumi started, but was interrupted. "Bullshit! What happened to my godson! I got a tip from an informant, they saw him ALIVE."Jiraiya fumed as he slammed his fist on Izumi's desk. Izumi's sharingan activated on instinct. "Truth be told. I have no clue. The Kyubi managed to take control of his body and use a jutsu that seperated him from the rest of the world."

Izumi paused for a moment, deep in thought. "When the Zinra virus started spreading, they were all drawn to Naruto. I tried to protect him, but evetually I was overrun..."

 _Flashback- 5 years ago_

 _Naruto's cave_

Izumi had spent the last two years protecting Naruto and trying to figure out how to get him out of the bubble that had seperated them for so long. She had made no progress, but she could tell that he was changing physically. His body was growing at an alarming rate, and even his chakra levels rose rapidly. But that was beginning to be a problem. The Zinra had been ravaging the surrounding areas and were coming ever closer to Naruto. Izumi feared that if/when he got out of that bubble, he would be greeted only by Zinra, and that was... undesirable.

As these thoughts were running through her head, she head several gutteral noises coming from the entrance to the cave. Izumi's sharingan immediately flared to life. She handled the few Zinra at the entrance with ease, but she knew it was only a matter of time before more came. She could see swarms of them coming in the distance. It pained her to do it, but she decided to collapse the entrance to the cave, hopefully keeping out the Zinra for a while. She said her goodbyes to Naruto and collapsed the entrance on her way out.

 _Flashback end_

"That's what happened... Now you need to answer a question of mine." Izumi said as she waited for Jiraiya to process the information. "Where is he?" Izumi could sense his hesitance to answer. "From what I can understand, the Kyubi has been let loose inside of his mind. It has control over just about everything he thinks and does. That can't be allowed to happen, but I can't help him alone... I need to know where he is, and I need you to help me fix whatever is wrong with the seal." Izumi explained.

Jiraiya wasn't pleased with how things were looking concerning his godson, but he didn't really have a choice. He would be almost impossible to subdue alone... but with Izumi. It might work. Although he didn't like working with the traitorous Uchiha he knew it was for the good of his godson. "I will help you... On one condition. When we get him back, I will take him to Mount Myoboku for a year or two just to make sure his head is in the right place. After that, he can decide what to do on his own." Izumi was hesitant, but she needed Jiraiya's skill in seals to properly contain the Kyubi. "So long as I get to see him for a few weeks before you take him away." She said, looking to Jiraiya. "Agreed. He was in Takigakure as of two days ago, but beyond that I can't tell, I haven't had any further contact with my informant."

"I have some imporatant matters to attend to here in Kusa over the next few days. Track him down and keep me updated involving his whereabouts. Wait until I've arrived to engage him." Izumi said with a tired sigh. She was glad she'd be able to find Naruto soon. However, none of that would matter unless the crumbling Kusagakure was able to hold itself together. If Kusa fell apart, there would be no place to start her new empire afterall.

 _With Naruto and Hikari_

 _3 miles outside of Takigakure_

Naruto and Hikari had finally lost the trail of the shinobi that were pursuing them. The sun was just beginning to rise and Naruto was running out of gas. Kurama had to stop feeding him her chakra in order to escape Taki. He was now walking slowly next to a very delighted Hikari. While she was hurt that Naruto left her so abruptly earlier, she was willing to see past it if he had a good enough reason. They kept walking until they reached a small cave on the outskirts of the Land of Fire.

Hikari cleared out the cave of it's previous inhabitants. Zinra. The weak ones though, nothing that required any effort on Hikari's part. After that she pulled out a storage scroll and laid out a bedroll. She laid down and motioned for him follow suit, he hesitated a bit. 'Is it alright if I-' **'No.'** Kurama interrupted. Naruto sighed. "I'm sorry Hikari, I can't sleep with you anymore." He said as though it were a chore.

"Why not? First you leave me like you did, and now you're acting so cold! What's wrong Naruto? I even got a present for you and everything..." She said disappointed. 'Please Kurama? Just tonight? She hel-' **'NO'** Kurama interrupted again, in a tone that dared Naruto to ask again.

"My tenant... Doesn't want me to. If I had it my way I would, but she'd get really mad at me." 'SHE?!' Hikari thought, outraged. "Well then, You must really not want to be around me then..." She said standing up as she started moving towards him with an insane smile. "You were going to run away from me again weren't you?" She said, as Naruto began to feel some KI coming off of her. "Hikari- please I'm sorry I didn't want to leave I-"

"You're only here because I have something you want, right?" She said as she pulled out a scroll from a storage seal on her arm. **'I knew this was a bad idea!'** Kurama thought to herself. Naruto was in no shape to fight, and using any of her chakra would no doubt begin to attract Zinra.

"Hikari no that's-" He was interrupted by a slap across the face courtesy of Hikari. "Then take them..." She said, tears beginning to flow from her eyes. She held out the items for Naruto to take. "Take them... and... and leave...BEFORE I HURT YOU!" She was beginning to unravel. Naruto was shocked. **'Take them and go!'** Kurama said hastily. 'Kurama I can't do that. I can't do these things to her anymore! She's saved my life and been nothing but good to me. All she wants is some affection!' He said to her in his mind.

 **'TAKE THEM AND GO!'** Kurama roared as pain began to fill his head. Naruto fell to his knees in pain. Hikari dropped the scroll and the folder and immediately started trying to see what was wrong with him. "Naruto what's happening?" She said in between sobs. 'Not again! You can't do this!' Naruto said to Kurama. **'YES I CAN'** her voice reverbertaed through his skull, increasing the pain as his vision began to blur. "Hi-Hikari... I'm sorry..." Naruto said between pained breaths before he passed out. "Naruto... Naruto!" Hikari yelled worriedly.

A few moments passed until Hikari heard a voice **"Not anymore..."** The voice came from Naruto but it wasn't his. 'Naruto' threw a punch at Hikari, but she backed up out od the way. His eyes opened but they were red now. The peaceful aura that she usually felt from him was now gone, and she could tell who this was. 'Stop this Kurama!' Naruto yelled inside of his mind. **'This is for your own good! stay out of this!'** Kurama said as she formed a cage around Naruto in their mindscape.

"You BITCH!" Hikari growled at Kurama, who was now in control of Naruto's body. She wasn't funneling any of her chakra into the boy, so Kurama had only as much power as Naruto would've had at his disposal. Kurama bent over and was about to pick up the folder and scroll, but Hikari's scythe hit her in the leg with the blunt side. Kurama fell over and was about to stand up again when Hikari's foot found itself on her chest, and began to press down. **"You wouldn't hurt your precious Naruto-kun would you?"** She said with a sinister grin. Said grin was instantly whacked off of Naruto's face when another blunt strike from Hikari's scythe. 'Kurama, I won't just let you do this!' Naruto yelled angrily as he bashed against the bars of the cage.

It began to rain, when Hikari said, "You're not Naruto!" Followed by another strike to the face. Kurama grinned before moving Naruto's body out from under Hikari. She picked up the items and began running through the woods with Hikari right behind her.

She created two shadow clones, and had them explode as close as possible to Hikari, in an attempt to buy herself more time. It was in vain. Hikari tackled her from behind and they landed in a small forest clearing. The two rolled away from one another, and got into their fighting stances. Kurama knew that she wouldn't be able to run from Hikari. "Let my Naruto-kun go!" Hikari said angrily. **"He's not yours!"** Kurama replied with just as much KI as Hikari. Naruto was breaking free of the cage while Kurama's attention was with Hikari.

They charged eachother and began fighting eachother. This wasn't going to be easy for either of them. Hikari had never fought to subdue, she'd only ever fought to kill, so trying to hold back her blows was a serious crutch. Kurama on the other hand knew that using any more jutsu than had already been used would both: 1) Seriously exaust Naruto's body. 2) Attract the Zinra to their location. (The Kage Bunshin, and their subsequent explosions were probably enough to pique their interest, but if there are no follow up jutsu, they'll lose interest quickly)

Without jutsu, or chakra usage it was going to be impossible to defeat Hikari. Speaking of Hikari, she whacked the posessed Naruto in the stomach, knocking the wind out of Kurama. She was about to follow up with another strike to the head in hopes of knocking him out, but Kurama rolled Naruto out of the way of the blow. Hikari tried for another follow up, but this time Kurama grabbed the scythe and pulled it from Hikari's hands, throwing it to the ground. Naruto was out of the cage, he moved as slowly and quietly as he could inside of his mindscape, making his way towards the occupied Kurama.

Hikari pounced Kurama and began to try and strangle her, in order to knock Naruto's body out of comission. Just as Kurama was about to pass out, she managed to land a powerful punch right to her nose knocking her away. Kurama took this opportunity to climb on top of Hikari and try to rip her head from her body. Hikari struggled, but couldn't get her off. Finally, just as she felt her muscles begin to rip, it stopped. Naruto delivered a swift strike to Kurama's neck inside of their mindscape, which knocked her out.

She looked at her attacker ready for anything. But she was greeted with Blue eyes. It was Naruto. He began to cry and apologize to Hikari profusely. "It's okay Naruto-kun. I'm here for you." She comforted as Naruto buried his face in her shoulder. She walked them back to their camp and they both collapsed on the bedroll together completely swamped.

 _ **So, let me know what you thought! Leave a review and let me know. I accept praise and criticism alike!**_


	16. Chapter 16

**Hey guys, here's a short little update before some major plot points finish developing :3**

 **Hope you guys have fun reading! Remember to leave a review and tell me how you felt! ~Howl's Curse**

Naruto felt. Strange. For the first time in a long time, Kurama was not telling him what to do. His mindscape was quiet. He looked down on the unconscious form of Kurama. He felt bad for hurting her, but at the same time he knew that she had been over stepping her bounds with him. He wasn't just an object, right? He wasn't just a tool... right?

With those thoughts in mind, he began to wake up. He was warm, and still had his face nuzzled into Hikari's shoulder. He felt truly well rested and relaxed. Something he hadn't felt since leaving his bubble. He looked up at Hikari's still sleeping face. Her silver hair was a bit messy, and the blood from the night before had now dried onto her skin, but nevertheless Naruto thought she was beautiful. He didn't want to get up, but he also wanted to make some food. He hadn't eaten since Konoha. He quickly wrote up a not to Hikari explaining where he went and left it on the bedroll. After that he went out to hunt.

When Naruto returned to the campsite about an hour later with some squirrels to see Hikari still sleeping soundly, but now attempting to hold in her warmth by squeezing her blanket. Naruto chuckled to himself a little bit before starting a fire and cooking the squirrels.

Hikari woke up slowly at first, to the scent of something cooking, but then realized that Naruto was no longer next to her in the bedroll. She sprang up quickly and got into a serious stance ready for anyhting, which startled Naruto a bit.

As soon as she realized that Naruto was busy cooking breakfast for the two of them, she blushed slightly and rubbed her eyes tiredly before letting out a yawn. Naruto just chuckled again at her antics.

She moved up behind him and said, "What's cooking Naruto-kun?" As she wrapped her arms around his waist. Naruto turned his head to Hikari, "Squirrel" He replied.

"Oh that's right, you still haven't taken a look at your present yet." Hikari said, as she deatched herself from Naruto and began to pull out the scroll and folder from her storage scroll. "I'll take a look at it after we eat, okay?" Naruto responded. Hikari nodded, and set the items down. She started to pack up the bedroll and her other survival supplies. (Even though she can't die) By that point, Naruto had finished cooking the squirrels.

They sat down and ate together quietly. When they were finished, Naruto stared at the two items that were now in front of him and eyed them both curiously. "Which one should I look at first?" He asked while rubbing his hands together in anticipation. He knew that there had to be at least some valuable information in them, hopefully something to help him stop the out of control threat that was the Zinra.

He moved his hands towards the scroll, and tried to unroll it. It wouldn't budge. He noticed a seal located on the very front of the scroll, and used his limited knowledge of seals to identify that it was a very complex locking seal. It would take a true seal master to open this without a key. Naruto sighed in disappointment as he pocketed the scroll. Then he looked to the folder, which had already been opened a bit and slowly read it it's contents.

Hikari looked for a reaction from Naruto, but couldn't sense much until he burst out into laughter. "My old man... was the fourth Hokage?" He barely managed to get out through his laughter. Then the killer intent started to seep into his voice. "And they still treated me like that?" His tone became darker still, "The Zinra turned them and their village into paste." He said aloud. In his head, he was having a conflict. A part of him said that Konoha had already paid for the damage they had dealt him. The other part however wanted to hunt down each and every one of them.

Hikari wrapped her arms around him again, this time with an insane smile on her face. "What do you say we go gear up and pound the paste until there's nothing left but dust?" She asked innocently.

Naruto felt an overwhelming urge to agree. The first thought that came to his mind was that Kurama would want him to deal with the Zinra. But then he looked at the smiling form of Hikari, and all thought went out the window.

...

"Let's do it."

 _Meanwhile_

 _With Jiraiya_

When he'd arrived at Takigakure, Jiraiya was stunned. The village was in shambles. Shinobi were running left and right, and the main council building was a wreck. Fresh bloodstains and bodies of shinobi littered the ground. He stayed hidden until he'd found someone who looked to be in charge. A visibly exhausted young woman with blue hair and teal eyes. He stepped out from the shadows of the room she was in. She looked up, and was a bit startled at first, but relaxed immediately.

"Jiraiya-sama?" She asked. He just nodded. She smiled and walked up to him. "It's been too long Akina-chan. Last time I saw you, you were barely half my height." He said with a light smile.

"I'm sorry you have to see the village in such a mess right now, something big happened last night, and I'm still organizing tracking teams for the threat and trying to keep everything running smoothly. I've been named the new Sato-Osa of Taki as of ten hours ago. We were attacked, and Shibuki along with some of our best shinobi were killed in the fight." She said in a somber tone.

She looked up and hardened her tone. "But that's not why you're here. What can I assist you with Jiraiya-sama?"

"I'm looking for someone." He said shortly.

At this Akina was intrigued. Someone Jiraiya needed information on. "Who is it?" She asked, even though she had a pretty good idea as to where this was going.

"Uzumaki Naruto. I got an anonymous tip that he was in Taki. Do you know where he is?" He asked.

"He's the reason for the villages current state of affairs, or at least his accomplice is." She responded.

'Accomplice?' Jiraiya thought to himself. 'And what has that boy gotten himself into to warrant this?' Jiraiya sighed. "Do you have a description on this accomplice?" He asked.

Akina activated her **Kiokugan** (Memory Eye) and began drawing rapidly on on sheet of paper as she began to explain. "She was definitely a shinobi, but her movements were sloppy, and she never once visibly used a jutsu. No matter what people had hit her with, it never once slowed her down." She said as she finished her drawing, and passed it to Jiraiya for a physical description.

Jiraiya mulled over the description and now clear picture of how this was. "Hikari. That's all anyone knows her as. She's an S-ranked missing-nin from Yugakure who I had known to be working with Akatsuki up until all of my sources dried up. Beyond that, I don't know anything other than the fact that she's a deranged cultist."

"Well, I was just about to form a tracking team and hunt them down personally. Your help would be very appreciated Jiraiya-sama." Akina spoke.

"I'm in, but I have to send a message to one of my contacts before we leave. Also, tell your team that we take Naruto alive." He stressed the alive.

"Done. Meet us at the Village gate in half an hour." She said matter of factly.

Jiraiya just nodded and wrote a letter to Izumi:

 _"He escaped Taki with Hikari, and his whereabouts are currently unknown. I've joined up with a group of Taki hunter ninja in order to find him. Update me on your situation, you might need to leave sooner than expected."_

Then he gave it to a messenger toad, and it began moving in the direction of Kusagakure.

 _In Kusagakure_

Kakashi sighed. Negotiations with Izumi were unpleasant to say the least, but they were necessary. Satsuki was still back at the Konohagakure base, needless to say that if she knew they were dealing with Izumi she'd flip out.

Anyways, the remnants of Konoha were barely scraping by. The amount of resources and shinobi being lost recently was devastating to the survival of the group as a whole, so they would be moving to Kusa for protection as well as said resources. In exchange however, there would no longer be a Konohagakure no Sato (Hidden leaf village) and they would all become Kusagakure Shinobi. All of the land previously owned by Konoha would be given to Kusa. (Even if there wasn't too much of it left)

When Satsuki found all of this out, she would without a doubt be pissed. But in the end, he knew she would see that he was doing what he had to in order to protect the remainder of his shinobi and civilians.

The only oddity was when in the middle of negotiations a small orange toad had appeared on Izumi's desk.

 _Flashback_

"Izumi-dono, we can't just give you everything we've got!" Kakashi lashed out. Izumi just smirked a bit. "Yes you can. And if you want my help, you will. You can either join Kusa and give it everything you own, or you can be left alone out there starving to death or being ripped apart by Zinra." She said finally.

Kakashi grit his teeth and balled his fist. "I..." He was interrupted by a loud _Poof_ of smoke and a small toad appeared on Izumi's desk. It coughed up a note, and disappeared just as quickly as it had arrived.

Izumi put the letter aside for a moment. "Continue." She said flatly. "As representative of Konohagakure no Sato. We accept your offer." Kakashi managed to grind out. "Then I will begin preparations. You may leave." She said with a small smile on her face. She didn't know why, but she loved seeing the looks on peoples faces when they had no other choice but to run to her for help.

After Kakashi left she opened the note, and her smile immediately disappeared. "WHAT?!" She shouted angrily as she punched her desk hard enough to crack it thoroughly. She began to calm down. 'Why is she with him? The Kyuubi made it very clear that no one would ever get close to him again.' She was left with her thoughts, and was beginning to grow impatient in concerns to Naruto.

 _End Flashback_

'That must've been Jiraiya-sama... But no one has seen or heard of him since before the destruction of the village... This is troubling to say the least' Kakashi thought to himself, continuing on his walk back.

 _Back with Naruto and Hikari_

They walked through the forest rather quietly, making the occasional small talk. But for the most part Naruto was giving off a cold vengeance vibe for the most part. He looked visibly upset, torn almost. Hikari brushed it off as anticipation for his first real massacre, and the first of their many massacres to come if she had anything to say about it. Maybe she could make him a Jashinist too. Naruto was in fact like this because this was really the first time he'd ever had to make decisions on his own since he was about eight years old. He didn't know if what he was doing was right or was wrong. Honestly though, somewhere deep inside, he'd stopped caring about right and wrong. All he wanted now was something to beat the crap out of.

Hikari, for her part, was giddy, to say the least. For her part, this was the happiest she had ever felt. The anticipation of slaughter was always something she got excited about, but with Naruto? It took whatever feelings she had beforehand and made them ten times more potent. She was just now beginning to feel something for the first time in her life. Something she could only describe as... Love?

That word was so abstract to her. She'd given up on anything like that a long time ago, but the things she felt right now were inescapable and she was unable to find a better word other than love. So she'd decided. She loved Naruto.


	17. Chapter 17

**_Hey guys! Hope you enjoy the chapter! Feel free to leave a review._**

 _With Jiraiya and Akina_

Jiraiya crouched down over some tracks that Naruto had left behind. "They're headed towards... Hi no kuni?" Jiraiya questioned. He knew about Konoha's whereabouts even after the Zinra attack on the village, but he also knew that Hi no Kuni was otherwise barren at this point. Even the daimyo had evacuated to another land looking for sanctuary.

"We found him in Hi no kuni. The wastes of Hi no kuni (The land of Fire) rather. What a way to thank someone for saving his life." Akina spoke.

Jiraiya pretty much ignored her, "These tracks move around the wastes, but still lead into Hi no kuni..." He thought aloud. "He's headed for the Konoha base. With a crazy insane cultist that likes to slaughter everyone in her path. This is not good." He immediately began writing a letter to Izumi again. It was a simple letter. It read:

 _Naruto heading to Konoha, intentions unknown but assuming the worst. Get there now._

He then gave the letter to a messenger toad and sent it to Izumi. 'Let's just hope we're not too late to help him.' Jiraiya thought to himself, and then continued with the tracking squad at full speed.

 _Night time, Outskirts of Konoha base_

Two Chunin guards were just outside the giant set of double doors that led into the Konoha base. Other than those two, there was a group of four Jonin hiding in the darkness on the top of the base looking down on the entrance. Asuma was left in charge until Kakashi had returned, and had the base on alert until his return.

It was quiet outside. Silent almost. Out of nowhere, **'Katon: Goukyaku no Jutsu'** (Fire style: Fireball jutsu) Both Chunin disappeared in a blaze of orange flame.

The Jonin would've normally reacted to this by sounding the alarm, but they were a little preoccupied with having their throats slit by Hikari. While, subtlety certainly wasn't her speciality, she could appreciate its use in sensitive situations. Hikari would enter through the roof and meet Naruto, who was just now walking through the front door, when they were finished.

The large double door swung open very quickly. Naruto stood at the entrance in his torn black shinobi attire. The ninja on the other side of the door reacted immediately by readying their weapons. At least thirty of the remaining one-hundred and fifty Konoha shinobi, most of them Jonin, tensed at the presence of an intruder. The second Naruto moved into the base, all of the ninja immediately charged the unknown shinobi.

Time seemed to slow and Naruto felt a chill down his spine. Flashbacks to when he was mobbed by these _monsters_. He even remembered a few of their faces. For a moment, he was still. By the time the first shinobi had reached him however, he had steeled his resolve. He dodged the initial kunai strike from said shinobi, and grabbed him by the arm. He then spun around, using the shinobi's own momentum and threw him back at his comrades, buying him a small opening. **'Doton: Doryu Doomu'** (Earth style: Earth Dome) Naruto said, and created a dome around all of the konoha shinobi. The only thing that made this dome unique to other earth domes, was that it had a small hole. A one foot square hole. **'Katon: Karyuu Endan'** (Fire style: dragon flame bomb) Naruto shouted.

The dragon started out small, only big enough to fit inside the dome. Once inside however, It grew to be just as large, if not larger than the original dragon should've been. A loud 'BOOM' was heard from inside the dome. Then silence once more. The dome crumbled.

Naruto walked over the crumbled remains of the dome and the scorched remains of his former abusers with a wicked smile on his face. He was laughing. He felt better than he ever had before. It was euphoric.

A ninja that had been hiding in the shadows came out and tried to take Naruto out from behind while he seemed distracted. He jumped out and stabbed naruto in the back with his ninjato. 'Poof!' Naruto was replaced with a dead Konoha corpse.

Naruto just continued laughing. It echoed throughout the base. Needless to say everyone was awake at this point, but it scared the shit out of the man that had just attempted to stab Naruto in the back.

Not even five seconds later, Naruto appeared in a blur in front of the shinobi and wrapped his hand around his head. He lifted the shinobi in the air for a few seconds and gave out an insane laugh.

Just then some more Konoha shinobi had rounded the corner. Naruto decided to make a point. He funneled chakra into his hand and began to squeeze. The shinobi screamed and pleaded for him to stop, but Naruto kept going until his skull was crushed and blood went flying everywhere.

 _Meanwhile_

Hikari had been making short work of the Konoha shinobi for the most part, and had decided to go look for some more fun. That was when Asuma and his squad intercepted her. So far, it was a stalemate. Hikari couldn't seem to hit them, but any hit they landed on her from range was ineffective. Then by a stroke of luck for Hikari, she had landed a hit on Asuma. Barely. But it was enough.

She began going through her ritual, while Shikamaru tried to catch her in his shadow possession jutsu. She had just managed to finish her ritual when Shikamaru said, "'Kagemane no jutsu' Success." He then changed his hand sign and said, ' **Kage Nui no Jutsu'** (Shadow stitching technique) and ripped into Hikari, also rooting her into place.

Hikari began laughing maniacly at the pain. Just then, Asuma fell over blood spurting out of his mouth. Ino screamed. She tried to heal him, but every time she healed him, the wounds just kept reappearing.

More explosions shook the base. "Shikamaru, we need to get Asuma sensei out of here. We need to run." Ino screamed at Shikamaru. "Not quite yet, Ino. One last thing." Shikamaru handed some scrolls to Choji and told them to surround Hikari with them. When opened, they created earth walls all around Hikari (From the floor to the ceiling), forcing Shikamaru's jutsu to end, but trapping Hikari in. The Ino-Shika-Cho trio escaped with a wounded, near death Sarutobi Asuma.

Hikari began screaming obsceneties at the fact that she had been taken out of the fight. She was not a happy camper.

 _With Naruto_

Naruto had followed the trail of enemy shinobi into a large courtyard. The shinobi were visibly tensed at the destruction Naruto had wrought already, and even more on edge because he was smiling and laughing the whole way through it. Naruto had picked up a ninjato off of a dead shinobi and had been using it help carve his way through the base.

Might Gai stepped through the line of shinobi with no amount of fear on his face. The suprising part? He didn't say anything or show any emotion. He just got into a taijutsu stance.

Naruto sheathed his ninjato, and assumed his own taijutsu stance. The two stood there in silence until they both moved at once towards each other. They met each other blow for blow, and whenever Gai opened a gate, Naruto forced more chakra through his body. They were moving so fast, that seasoned Jonin could only make out faint blurs as they moved.

Fist met fist, every single strike was met with an equally powerful one. If one was truly able to see the fight between the two, it could be considered true martial art. Emphasis on the art. To those who could see it, it was awe inspiring.

Gai managed to knock Naruto off balance and got beneath him. He then kicked Naruto into the air. 'Asakujaku!' (Morning Peacock) Gai shouted as his fists became coated in flame. He then proceeded to punch Naruto what seemed an excessive number of times, and kicked him straight to the ground. Th Konoha shinobi looked like their hopes had been restored.

That was until Naruto stood back up. Forcing even more chakra into his body. He was exerting so much Killing intent that it became hard to breathe for the Konoha shinobi. He immediately lunged back at Gai. At this point Gai had opened seven of his eight gates, and was being pushed back by Naruto's brutal assault.

Then he heard the retreat siren. He knew he would have to buy time for the others to leave. He was finally able to create an opening and kicked Naruto away from him and the other Shinobi. "Retreat! I will buy you time!" Guy said as he made a hand sign. 'Hirudora!' (Afternoon Tiger) A giant tiger made of nothing but pure life energy raced towards Naruto. **"Futon: Tatsumaki!"** (Wind style: Tornado) Naruto shouted as a large pillar of wind picked up underneath the tiger and redirected it upwards and away from Naruto. At this point Naruto was okay, but definitely tired. Gai, couldn't take much more.

Gai just looked at Naruto for a moment. He recognized this boy from somewhere, But he couldn't remember where or when it was that he had seen this boy. The both of them were almost out of energy. Naruto just chuckled a bit to himself. He forced more chakra into his system. "Come on! Fight me with all you've got or your precious friends will die at my hands!" Naruto shouted.

Gai just looked down at the ground for a moment, then back up at Naruto. He put his hand into his chest and shouted, 'Gate of Death: OPEN!"

Naruto was thrown back by sheer power emanating from the green spandex wearing Jonin. They were moving at about the same speed now, but Gai was hitting quite a bit harder. With every blow, Naruto was being pushed back further. Gai knocked Naruto back and punched the air, the sheer force of the punch was enough to push the wind at Naruto and send him flying out of the base. Naruto quickly got back up and into a defensive position and began blocking the strikes from Gai. After receiving many what would be death dealing blows from Gai, Naruto was once again knocked further away from the base with an earth shaking punch.

This time Naruto stood up slowly, and could see Gai losing it. Naruto just had to survive this next attack. Gai charged at him full speed, **"NIGHT GAI!"** He shouted as the form of a dragon surrounded his body. Naruto steadied himself and prepared for the attack. He took as much chakra as he could and forced it into his body and charged at Gai at full speed. Just before Gai was about to hit however, Naruto shifted slightly out of the way and Gai's attack missed. Naruto knew he couldn't actually take that hit. But at full speed, he knew he could get out of the way of the attack. He only needed to SURVIVE Gai's onslaught not beat it straight out.

 _Meanwhile_

Jiraiya had just arrived at the base. It was in tatters and people were still evacuating. He could sense Zinra chakra signatures incoming from just about everywhere. He and his team from taki moved through the base, looking for signs of Naruto and Hikari other than the scorched and gutted bodies of shinobi. After a thorough search, nothing came up. Well. Almost nothing. Muffled screaming was heard in what looked like a pillar of stone inside one of the hallways in the base.

Jiraiya smashed one wall down with a chakra powered kick. Immediately afterwards, Hikari tried to decapitate him. Which was met by a dodge on the part of the sannin, followed by a paralysis seal being slammed into Hikari's stomach. Hikari would've once again began screaming obscenities, but couldn't seeing as she couldn't move at all. 'Man... Today sucks... Naruto will come and save me though... He'll be my knight in shining armor!' Hikari squealed to herself. However true this fantasy of hers would play out is up for debate.

Immediately afterwards, Jiraiya left the building and sent a message to Izumi:

 _We found Hikari. Haven't had a chance to interrogate her yet, but all traces of Naruto have vanished. I'm heading back to Taki with Hikari in order to properly interrogate her. Meet us there._

 _Back with Naruto_

He began heading back to the base battered, bruised and exhausted. In the distance he could see Takigakure shinobi carrying Hikari away. He reached out with his chakra to see if he would be able to handle fighting them right now. That was a definite nope. He could sense one MASSIVE chakra signature. Enough to go toe to toe with him at full strength. He would just get himself killed going in there now, but he'd need a plan.

Sakura was one of the last out of the base, as she was helping civilians evacuate. Naruto was following her as she attempted to catch up with the rest of the shinobi. She was running through the trees like all shinobi do, until she was blindsided mid air by Naruto, and thrown to the ground. Naruto proceeded to knock her out and tie her up. She would have to do. He was spent.

Naruto retreated into the night, and would wait until his strength was back to get Hikari back. She was the only real thing he had left. He **needed** her.

 **If you can't tell already, Naruto is kind of losing it without Kurama or some form of stability. (I don't think Hikari counts)**

 **Anyways, tell me what you guys thought. Praise and criticism are welcome. ~Howl's Curse**


	18. Chapter 18

**Hey guys, here's the next update in my little string of updates before I get busy again. It might be a little bit before I update but *Shrugs* I don't know. I'll do my best to keep updating, and just let me know what you guys think so I can keep things in mind for future chapters.**

Naruto was sitting around a campfire with a tied up, still unconcious Sakura not too far from him. His fight with Gai was... taxing at best. With Kurama unable to help his body heal, he was truly feeling the pain of the fight. Everything from bruises to cracked bones were littered along his arms and legs, and he was quickly falling asleep. He tried to stay awake but his body was having none of that.

 _Mindscape_

Naruto's mindscape had darkened considerably. It had once burned a bright gold-orange but now everything was grey, and his and Kurama's cabin was falling apart. The trees were dying. Everything was was decaying. And that's precisely how Naruto felt.

He felt just as hopeless and lost as he did when he was an eight year old kid, running scared from angry villagers on the streets of Konoha. What had he done? He wondered. Why was he just everyone's tool?

His thoughts drifted to Hikari. He couldn't tell what she wanted from him, but all he knew was that she was the only one that treated him like he wanted to be treated. She didn't force him to do anything. She didn't degrade him. She treated him like an equal. He wasn't her tool.

At this he immediately snapped out of his stupor. There was one thing he needed to do, and that was clear. Save Hikari. That's all that mattered.

 _Real World_

Naruto woke up to the sounds of his captive trying to squirm out of her restraints. He looked at her from where he'd been sleeping. It looked like she had been crying for some time now. 'Pathetic' He thought to himself.

"I'm not going to hurt you." He spoke softly. "You're only here because I need to get my... friend back from your allies." At this Sakura looked slightly less scared, but still didn't trust the words coming from her captor. Naruto removed Sakura's gag, to which she breathed a sigh of relief. "Tell me where your friends went, I'll take you back to them and we'll make an exchange. Simple as that."

Sakura eyed him suspiciously. "You tried to kill all of us, and would have succeeded had Gai-sensei not..." Naruto cut her off. "I wasn't in the correct state of mind. I'm sorry for the destruction I've caused. Your people weren't exactly the nicest to me when I was younger. I let my emotions rule me." He said, showing her the scars left behind by the villagers.

"You killed so many of them... and you're sorry? Next you want pity from me? Who the hell do you think you are?" Sakura growled.

"Yes. I'm sorry. And I wasn't looking for pity, I was hoping you might understand my point of view. I suppose you Konoha scum are known for the opposite. If you don't tell me where they went, I'll just leave you here for Zinra food and go finish killing your friends. I suppose you'll get off easy considering you won't become Zinra, but I don't think anyone likes to die being eaten alive." Naruto said monotonously, with no hesitation.

At this Sakura began considering her options. Whoever this guy was, clearly was in a whole other league of strength, even if he only looked her age. "Their probably regrouping in Taki until they can locate another suitable place to live." Sakura said slowly.

"Thank you." Naruto said while pulling out his new ninjato. Sakura flinched as naruto cut the rope that was currently holding her in place with one quick slash. "If you try to run away from, or fight me. You die. If I even think for a second that you're trying to communicate with your allies. You die. Understood?" Sakura just nodded. And the two were on their way to Taki.

 _Takigakure_

Jiraiya was not having a fun time. Trying to get Hikari to say anything meaningful concerning Naruto was nearly impossible. So far the only useful bit of information he's gotten is that Naruto will be coming to retrieve Hikari. Other than that, no amount of interrogation or torture could get her to say anything.

Izumi had written back to Jiraiya saying that she would arrive at Taki within the next twelve hours. Jiraiya held out hope that this would lead to the capture of Naruto.

 _With Kakashi_

Kakashi had just arrived in Taki after news of the attack came in. Jiraiya had pulled him off to the side and had informed him that Naruto was responsible. Kakashi was shocked at first, but moved past that and decided to help Jiraiya subdue Naruto.

Afterwards, he met up with Satsuki and the rest of his squad, only to notice that they were down a member. Sakura was missing. Kakashi immediately assumed the worst. "Who was it?" Satsuki grilled Kakashi. The man gulped. "A boy, who used to be a member of our village before it was destroyed named Uzumaki Naruto. He was relentlessly harassed and tortured by us. He must've come back seeking some revenge." Kakashi said downtrodden. Satsuki for her part couldn't believe it.

Kakashi continued however, "The good news is that I've found us a new place to stay. Kusagakure will accept us as refugees of war so long as we pull our own weight." Satsuki looked a bit better knowing that she wouldn't have to be so paranoid all the time, but then Kakashi dropped a bombshell. "Satsuki... Their leader is Izumi." At this Satsuki fumed. Kakashi tried to calm her down but she stormed off, and tried to find a decent place to cool off on her own.

 _Meanwhile_

Naruto had just reached the outskirts of Taki with Sakura just behind him. The trip had been mostly silent, although Sakura's curiousity got the better of her and she started asking quesitions to which Naruto either remained silent or reminded her that she wasn't really in a postion to be asking him questions.

Naruto made a shadow clone and had it sneak into the village in order to find whoever was in charge and deliver his message. A few minutes later, he got the information from his shadow clone and knew where the exchange was taking place.

Kakashi, Jiraiya and Akina stood out in an open clearing, seemingly alone, with a still paralyzed, visibly bloody and tortured Hikari over Jiraiya's shoulder. **'Futon: Atsugai'** Was heard from multiple directions, followed by the several Taki and Konoha shinobi that were hiding in the trees surrounding the clearing falling flat on their asses in the clearing.

Immediately afterwards Naruto and several shadow clones emerged from the trees surrounding the other shinobi, with Sakura in front of the real Naruto. "I thought I told you to come here yourselves, without guards. Typical." Naruto and all of his clones said in unison, clearly disappointed.

Kakashi looked at the still rather scared Sakura standing in front of Naruto, happy that she was in fact alive, but upset that she'd been captured. Jiraiya looked at Naruto intently looking for any signs of the Kyubi being in control of his godson. Akina and the rest of the shinobi looked at Naruto in anger, mostly for the destruction he had wrought recently. Hikari would've squeled with joy that Naruto was here to save her, but she was still stuck in place.

After several seconds of silence Naruto dispersed all of his shadow clones and spoke up again. "Give me Hikari, and you can have her back." Naruto said motioning to Sakura. "I don't want to fight you, but if you don't give her back to me, I will."

Finally, Jiraiya spoke. "That can't happen Naruto. I need you to come with us as well. We will release Hikari if you turn yourself in." Naruto was suprised someone knew his name. "Who are you? And more importantly, how do you know my name?" he asked looking at Jiraiya.

"My name is Jiraiya, of the Dansetsu no Sannin... and I was supposed to be your godfather." Jiraiya spoke in a deep raspy voice.

Naruto just took a moment to process that information. "Well, in any event, I'm afraid that isn't possible. Either you give me back Hikari or I take her back by force." The young man said firmly.

"In that case..." Jiraiya started. A pair of hands came up from under the ground underneath Naruto's feet, and pulled him down beneath the ground so only his head was showing. At this, Sakura promptly ran. Naruto began moving underneath the Earth, and he was starting to get out, until and unseen force shoved him out of the hole in the ground straight into the air.

Several shinobi that were once on the ground, but had moved since Naruto was dragged underground, were now wrapping Naruto in ninja wire up at tree level up until he was wrapped in a cocoon of wire.

"I wouldn't suggest moving, It'll only make the trap tighter." Akina said, full of herself. Sakura began laughing, and everyone else stared at her like she was crazy. 'Naruto' that was trapped in the cocoon of wire went 'Poof' and ceased to exist.

Immediately 'Sakura' Swept Jiraiya off of his feet and swiped up Hikari, then dashed for the trees. Shortly afterwards, Naruto's Sakura henge ended, and he began tree hopping. "After him!" Kakashi ordered.

And so the chase began.

 **Let me know what you guys thought. Leave a review. If you ask questions I'll do my best to respond. Thanks guys. ^.^ ~Howl's Curse**


	19. Chapter 19

**Alright guys, here's a small little something I managed to push out before I get busy again. I hope you enjoy! ~Howl's Curse**

 **P.S. Just an FYI I currently have a pairing for Naruto in mind, but she has not yet been introduced in this Fic. If there is a harem of any kind, It will be small and only with characters that make sense at the time.**

Naruto ran through the woods surrounding Takigakure, carrying Hikari bridal style. He had noticed that the land was on an incline for the most part. Most of his pursuers were having a difficult time keeping up with him, but Jiraiya, Akina and Kakashi were able to at least hold pace with him.

He tried to leap higher into the trees, but the second he landed on a tree branch, his insticts told him to dodge, and for good reason. Akina threw three senbon laced with some kind of toxin that landed about three inches from where he was currently standing.

Naruto just kept moving, **"Suiton: Suiryudan no Jutsu!"** he heard Kakashi say as a dragon made of water rushed at Naruto. He immediately turned around mid air and went through hand seals of his own, **"Futon: Shinkuuha"** He said quietly, and blew out a stream of wind that chopped the dragon clean in half, while also propelling him further away from his pursuers.

Unfortunately, Naruto had missed the next tree branch because of this extra propulsion and instead landed on the ground. Jiraiya took this as his opportunity. **"Doton: Yomi Numa"** (Earth style: Swamp of the underworld) He said as soon as Naruto landed, causing Naruto to land in a large puddle of adhesive mud that slowly began to consume him.

Naruto grit his teeth. He was going to have to spend a bit of energy to get out of this one. He flared his chakra, and started to slowly move out of the puddle. Jiraiya held firm and channelled even more chakra into his jutsu slowing Naruto's progress for long enough to give Akina an opening. She threw even more senbon, and they hit their mark this time. Naruto felt a slight sting on the back of his left leg, and then numbness.

Naruto just grit his teeth and shoved every last bit of chakra he had left into escaping, and so he did. He let out a primal roar. This wouldn't be enough to stop him from saving Hikari. Despite every single part of his body protesting violently, he forced his legs forwards through the miniature swamp that Jiraiya had created, and hopped back up into the trees before anyone could further hinder his movement.

Hikari for her part was worried for Naruto slightly, but overall loving the effort he was going through for her sake.

 _Meanwhile_

 _Naruto's mindscape_

Kurama stirred. She stared at the darkness that was Naruto's mindscape. She wandered around for a while in silence. Something was terribly wrong with Naruto. He was losing it to say the least. She didn't know if she should be happy that he was lost without her, or sad that he needed help and wouldn't accept hers.

Hikari was a problem to say the least. She knew that deranged psychopath was no good for Naruto. I mean, all of this damage to his mindscape was obviously Hikari's fault... Right?

She would get Naruto back. Even if that meant she had to burn away Naruto's memories for as long as she could manage. The process was tedious, and incredibly painful for Naruto. She had begun to consider other possibilities...

That was until she felt a chakra signature that she had become quite familiar with, and one that she knew Naruto would need help escaping from. She was shaking in fury that Naruto still couldn't face her in a dead fight and rip her to shreds for her. Izumi had arrived.

 _Back in the real world_

Naruto kept running, he was speeding ahead of his pursuers. By this point, the paralysis seal on Hikari had worn off, and she had started to run alongside the now clearly exhausted Naruto. Things were looking good for them. They stopped for a moment for Naruto to catch his breath. They were about to start moving again when a voice spoke from behind them that sent chills down Naruto's spine, and filled Hikari's head with anger.

"You bitch! You said he was de-" Hikari started but was cut off when she fell over unconscious on the ground. "I don't have time for you... worm." Izumi spat as she captured Hikari in a genjutsu.

Naruto looked at her once, and keeled over in pain shutting his eyes immediately. Memories of their time together over ridden by Kurama's brainwashing. Anger filled Naruto and one mantra played over and over again in his head. "Kill the Uchiha." It said over and over. **'I'm here now Naruto-kun'** Kurama said sweetly. The pain subsided, but the mantra continued. Kurama instructed Naruto to close his eyes, as they would only be a hindrance versus Hikari. She could sense Izumi for him anyways.

Naruto stood up straight once again and stared straight at the sky. His messy, blood coated hair covered his closed eyes, which if they could be seen, would show a crimson red. Izumi looked on in concern. Whatever she thought the kyuubi had done to him was dead wrong. She'd done much worse. Naruto let out an insane laugh as he began quietly chant the mantra playing through his head.

Izumi was horrified as Naruto had become covered in Kurama's Biju chakra. Naruto bull rushed Izumi full force. A demonic chakra coated fist to the gut would have been the first physical interaction that she had with Naruto in the last five years if she hadn't used a substitution jutsu. Naruto charged her once more and followed that up with a series of strikes intended to gut Izumi alive. As the series of blows came he kept chanting the manta over and over, each time becoming a little bit more bloodthirsty and desperate.

Izumi couldn't take it anymore and tried to reason with him. She dropped an explosive note at her feet and jumped back, creating some distance between the two once more."Please Naruto, stop" She pleaded after some distance was created between them. Tears started to flow down her cheeks. "I'm sorry... Please... Forgive me... Come back to me..." She begged. Naruto stood there, and held his head for a moment in pain, briefly recognizing what was happening. "I-Izumi..." He started but was stopped by Kurama flooding even more demonic chakra into his system. **"Kill... Uchiha..."** The possessed form of Naruto let out in a gutteral voice. He charged once more.

Naruto's brutal offesive left Izumi with no option but to fight defensively until an opening presented itself. She couldn't use any lethal jutsu on him, and most of her genjutsu revolved around her eyes. She'd either have to find a way to open his eyes, or hope that support showed up soon.

Naruto landed a kick on her torso, and knocked her back a good thirty feet. She slid across the ground and started going through hand seals, **"Katon: Enmaku!"** (Fire style: Smokescreen) She shouted as a chakra filled smoke filled the area. He wouldn't be able to sense her, and maybe she could get him to open his eyes or make himself vulnerable to one of her other techniques.

That was the hope at least.


	20. Chapter 20

**Okay... maybe I wasn't as busy as I had expected to be. But hey, that means that chapter 20 gets to come out a bit earlier than expected :3**

 **I invite you to leave a review or PM me about questions, thanks for reading my stuff guys. ~Howl's Curse**

Those hopes were dashed by an immediate, **"Futon: Daitoppa!"** (Wind style: Great Breakthrough) that blew away the would be cover for Izumi. Once more, Naruto threw a punch at Izumi. A near miss, the chakra cloak singed some of Izumi's skin. But that wasn't the worst of it, Naruto shifted his body and sent a kick that would've knocked her into the air. She caught the foot, only to reel away in pain when her arms were covered in burns.

Naruto started going through hand seals, **"Katon: Gouka mekkyaku!"** (Fire style: Great Fire annihilation) but instead of the normal red hot flames, these were a light shade of blue. The wall of flame expanded towards Izumi rapidly, as her left eye began to bleed. **"Amaterasu!"** (Heavenly god of the sun) The signature black flames clashing with Naruto's blue. Needless to say the surrounding forest was now scorched.

The clash of flames took a a while to resolve, but eventually Naruto's blue flames rescinded seeing as he couldn't stop a flame that simply wouldn't be put out. Izumi ended her amaterasu for fear of critically wounding and potentially killing Naruto.

The demon possessed young man snarled and dug his hands into the ground as a surge of energy was released from the boy and four tails of demonic chakra formed on his person. Meanwhile Jiraiya and company had finally arrived, however only Kakashi, Jiraiya and her personal guard which should show up any minute would really be able to help in this situation. The other shinobi would provide support.

Jiraiya moved towards Naruto while Izumi sat back planning something. **"Hari Jizo"** (Needle Hair) Jiraiya said as he lashed his hair out at the Naruto, only for the latter to dodge and close the distance between the two. Naruto was quite easily pushing Jiraiya back, leaving scorch marks and burns wherever Jiraiya was forced to block.

Eventually, Naruto swept Jiraiya's legs out from underneath him and swatted away the Sannin with a chakra tail. Needless to say Jiraiya was sent flying. Naruto was then engaged by several other Konoha and Taki shinobi. **'Suiton: Daibakuha!'** (Water style: Explosive Torrent) Several of them shouted as waves upon waves water came flowing out at the jinchuriki. **"Doton: Wareme Otoshiama"** Naruto countered. The water filled the chasm and Naruto was left unhidered. Naruto charged the shinobi full speed and ran right through them, trampling any in his way, and ignoring or dodging every attack headed his way. His target was clear. Izumi.

 _Mindscape_

Opposite of what was happening outside of his mindscape, Naruto was unnaturally calm. Naruto was laying down with his head in Kurama's lap, as she whispered to him. Kurama knew what was happening outside of the mindscape however, and was suprised at how well the fight was going. At first, she had wanted to simply get away from Izumi and restart, but if things kept going like they did. Naruto would be free of her grasp, and arguably the biggest threat to the both of them would be dead.

She just giggled a bit, and kissed him on the lips while channelling even more of her chakra to Naruto.

 _Reality_

Naruto let out another roar as two more tails formed, giving him a total of six. The shinobi surrounding him were blown away by the sheer power given off by him, and the air was thick and heavy with blood lust. He had begun to rush Izumi once more but found that he couldn't move.

A trail of shadows connected Naruto to an already exhausted Shikamaru Nara as he desperately tried to hold the beast that was Naruto back for as long as he could. He only needed to do it for a little bit longer, and then the plan would work.

All of a sudden a ringing noise was heard throughout the forest. Naruto's body, now kept in a genjutsu stopped moving. Kin, former member of the Otogakure, had placed bells all around the immediate area. This was her best genjutsu to date.

Kurama, sensing the disturbance of her containers chakra, decided to wait for the right moment to break free.

Immediately, Izumi and a bruised Jiraiya rushed to Naruto. Jiraiya was carrying a sealing kit, and Izumi had her sharingan blaring. Just as they were about to reach him however, another surge of demonic chakra broke Naruto free of the genjutsu, giving him a seventh tail. Jiraiya was sent flying once more, while Izumi slid across the ground a bit. Naruto immediately powered his way out of Shikamaru's jutsu, and pounced on Izumi.

He raised a claw and sent it down as forcefully as he could into Izumi's chest. For a moment, everybody thought it was over, but Izumi disappeared into a flock of crows. The crater left in the ground from Naruto's blow cracked the Earth for hundreds of feet.

Five shinobi wearing Kusagakure ANBU masks jumped down from the trees, surrounded him and started going through hand seals, **"Kumiwase Justu: Ryujin"** (Combination Jutsu: God of Dragons) Elemental dragons of each type began barreling towards his position.

Naruto channeled his chakra, and the wind began to pick up around him. **"Futon: Tatsumaki"** He shouted. Each of the dragons was blown into the tornado. At this the Kusa Shinobi retreated. Naruto stood at the eye of the storm as the dragons sent his way began to merge with his tornado. More chakra was pushed into his tornado and the jutsu expanded, forcing many to run away, and the unfortunate to get sucked into the tornado and eaten alive by each of the five elements. At this point the only shinobi alive were Jiraiya, Kakashi, Izumi, Akina, the five Kusa ANBU and ten of the original thirty Jonin to start the hunt for Naruto.

Finally, the jutsu dissipated and the forest had been completely destroyed. Immediately afterwards however, a sealing array had been set up around the devastated area, trapping Naruto and anyone left alive inside. This was a measure on Izumi's part to not only keep Naruto in, but to keep the Zinra out. All of this chakra usage was bound to start attracting them if things stayed as they had.

Kurama just scoffed. As if that puny sealing array would keep her contained. She pointed Naruto in the direction of Izumi's chakra signature, and he dashed through the now destroyed forest to hunt her down.

Standing on top of a mountain of trees, was Izumi standing alone, facing Naruto. Naruto didn't even slow down and tried to pounce on her once more. Izumi, expecting this, activated her Susanoo. The strike clashed with her shield and a gust of wind blew back anything in the immediate area as a result of the force.

The Susanoo's other arm came crashing down right were Naruto was standing. The demon possessed boy caught the arm with his two arms and all of his tails. The force from Izumi's attack causing the trees underneath his feet to crack, and then finally give way, revealing the chasm that was full of water from before. He used his tails to grab onto the edges of the chasm to halt his would be fall, several hundred feet down into a giant pool of water.

Izumi's Susanoo receded, and she jumped down towards Naruto. The both of them started going through hand seals. **"Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu"** The both of them shoted at the same time as several balls of fire spewed from their mouths, cancelling each other out. Naruto slingshotted himself at Izumi, and grabbed her as he came out of the smokescreen created by the clashing of their jutsu.

Izumi grunted from the pain from the burns, but new that they would be worth it. She snapped her fingers and cast a high ranked double layered genjutsu. Naruto had no protection from it other than for Kurama to funnel more chakra into him to break the genjutsu. That's precisely what Izumi was counting on. She had prepared the genjutsu to do a few things. The act of breaking the first layer of the genjutsu put an impulse in someone's head, and the act of breaking the second layer forced the user to act on that impulse. Naruto opened his eyes, and with such close proximity to each other, had nowhere to run.

With her one opening, she cast the only jutsu she knew could keep the Kyubi at bay, even if only for a short time. **"Tsukuyomi"** She said quietly. Before the jutsu could take effect however, Naruto's body, reacting to Kurama's instincts kicked her away as hard and as far as possible, in turn sending Naruto flying through the air once more as well.

'Shit!' **'Shit!'** were Izumi's and Kurama's responses. Izumi for one reason. They were several hundred feet in the air, and Naruto was now falling, unconscious, to the ground alone. And Kurama for two reasons. Izumi's concern along with the fact that her chakra cloak was receding from around Naruto's body and there was nothing left that she could do in the real world as the genjutsu took effect.

 _Inside the Tsukuyomi_

An already unconcious Naruto lay in Kurama's lap as Izumi and Kurama glare at each other. **"You bitch..."** "You bitch..." They both growled at each other, annoyed.


	21. Chapter 21

**Hey guys! It's been a while but I hope you enjoy. Let me know what you thought!**

 _Inside the Tsukuyomi_

An already unconcious Naruto lay in Kurama's lap as Izumi and Kurama glare at each other. **"You bitch..."** "You bitch..." They both growled at eachother, annoyed.

Izumi immediately attempted to use the tsukuyomi to move Naruto to her and lock Kurama away in a cage. She encountered some trouble, however. Only one of those actions worked. Naruto was moved several feet behind Izumi and lay on the ground, still unconcious. Kurama however began to laugh maniacly. "You thought I wouldn't prepare for something like this Uchiha? **YOU THOUGHT WRONG** " She ended in a growl as demonic chakra formed around her. **"I didn't have time to prepare Naruto for this, so it won't go exactly as I'd planned, but you will die Uchiha!"**

Izumi scowled. If Kurama had found a way to resist her tsukuyomi, even if only for a short time inside of the jutsu itself, she wasn't certain she could defeat the Bijuu.

A bolt of red lightning came shooting out of Kurama's hand towards Izumi, who dodged it gracefully. Kurama barreled towards her opponent and attempted to rip her throat out with her claws. Izumi redirected the attack away from her and elbowed the enraged Bijuu in the jaw sending her stumbling backwards. Izumi followed up with a low sweep to knock Kurama on the ground, but the Bijuu's instincts and speed allowed her to narrowly jump out of the way.

Izumi reversed the gravity of the tsukuyomi world while her opponent was still mid air. She couldn't have it only effect Kurama for some reason, 'Most likely the Bijuu's meddling in Naruto's mind' Izumi thought to herself. So Izumi had it effect the entire world. Kurama would've been sent flying if several of her chakra tails hadn't grabbed onto the ground. Izumi created a barrier around Naruto so he wouldn't be sent flying away uncontrollably, and used her chakra to stick herself to the floor.

Kurama catapulted herself at the Uchiha, intent on gutting her alive. Izumi sidestepped the main part of the attack, but wasn't expecting a follow up from Kurama's tails, which sent her plummeting into the air. Izumi immediately switched the gravity back to normal and landed on the ground next to Naruto. Kurama was beginning to look much more feral and her demonic features were more pronounced.

She got down on all fours and sent a surge of Killing Intent towards an unphased Izumi. The ground buckled beneath the Bijuu's strength as she dashed once more towards Izumi. Kurama was on the offensive, moving at speeds that Izumi was having trouble keeping up with. Finally, Kurama took her offensive too far and became off balance. Izumi capitalized by landing her fist in her opponents gut and slamming her into the ground.

When the dust settled, Kurama was not on the ground, or even in sight for that matter, **"Even in the slight chance that you defeat me here, Naruto will never accept you into his life again. I've made sure of that..."** A demonic voice spoke sinisterly from all around the tsukuyomi world.

Izumi grit her teeth, "When I do defeat you, I will rid any trace of you from Naruto's mind, He's mine and mine alone! Now, show yourself!" Izumi raged. A cackling Kurama was forced into existance several feet in front of Izumi.

Kurama transformed into her nine-tailed fox form, and Izumi let loose her susanoo. Their battle raged on and on. Hours passed and then days, but finally Kurama had gotten pent up. She bull rushed Izumi, breaking her shield from her Susanoo, and whipped her tails around sending Izumi through the air until she landed on her feet a fair distance away. " **Enough of this. He's mine!"**

"I'm so close to getting him back, I won't let you keep him any longer, he belongs to me!" Izumi shouted back at her enemy.

Kurama growled and began forming a tailed beast bomb.

 _With Naruto_

Even in his unconcious state, he could hear everything occuring between Izumi and Kurama. He was disappointed at the very least. 'So I really am just a tool to them, huh?' he thought to himself. "You were never meant to be a tool to anyone..." a voice spoke to him. It felt sincere and caring, but Naruto dismissed it as nothing more than another trick by someone intending to use him. "Give me some of your chakra..." the voice spoke once more. Naruto didn't care anymore. He willingly gave it over.

 _Back in the Tsukuyomi world_

 **"DIE UCHIHA!"** Kurama shouted as the ball of dark energy shot from her location towards Izumi. On instinct, Izumi rolled out of it's direct path, only for her and Kurama to realize that it was heading right towards Naruto. 'Naruto!' **'Naruto!'** they both thought. Izumi immediately moved Naruto to her.

As the explosion of the tailed beast bomb was heard in the background, Izumi held Naruto in her arms. She held him close, warranting a snarl from Kurama. "You don't truly care about him... You almost killed him in your stupidity!" At this Kurama recoiled, maybe she did take it a bit too far. **"You're the one trying to take him from me! This never would've happened if you hadn't been so manipulative towards him! Don't act all high and mighty when you-"**

She was interrupted by black chains violently shooting out of Naruto's body surrounding and encasing him. Izumi was forced to drop him due to the sheer pain from even touching them. The Tsukuyomi began to falter. Kurama and Izumi both looked at eachother, panic present in their eyes. Neither of them knew what was about to happen.

 _Real world_

Izumi looked as the chains that surrounded Naruto in her tsukuyomi wrapped around his true body. A few of them wrapped themselves around her. She let out a grunt of pain before she was shot through the air, with a one way ticket to the ground. Naruto was sent flying in the opposite direction. Breaking the seal array surrounding their area and landing in a nearby river.

Kakashi leapt through the tress and caught Izumi before she could hit the ground. "Find... Naruto..." She rasped before she passed out, with burn marks covering her arms. The scarecrow gave her over to her Elite Shinobi and summoned Pakkun to see if he couldn't track down the young man. Jiraiya took a moment to recover, then followed after him.

 _Naruto's Mindscape_

Kurama looked at the wreckage of Naruto's mindscape. It had almost fallen apart. She bolted for the cabin that she and Naruto shared and found a sleeping Naruto inside. She appraoched him, but before she could lay a finger on him a golden chain wrapped around her arms and held her in place. Kushina Uzumaki's blue eyes bored into Kurama's and dared her to move.

 **I'll leave it here for now. Hope you guys enjoyed! I'll try to update every once in a while from now on. Thank you guys so much!**


	22. Chapter 22

**Hey guys! Howl's Curse here, just doing another quick update before I get busy with school during the week. Let me know what you guys thought by leaving a review or following my fic!**

 _Naruto's Mindscape_

Kurama looked at Naruto's mother, afraid wasn't the right word, it was more like a combination of shocked and terrified. The chains flung her out the front door of the cabin. She tumbled for a bit until she landed on her feet. She tried to unleash her demonic chakra, but she was almost immediately smothered by golden chains.

Kushina slowly walked down the steps from the cabin to the ground. "I will not allow you to run rampant through my son's head any longer, Kurama!" Kushina said with conviction clear in her voice.

Another surge of demonic chakra broke the chains surrounding Kurama, her demonic features ever present on her face. **"Kushina, you should be grateful I-"** More chains came from the ground and restrained her once more.

Kushina walked up to the restrained Bijuu and punhced her in the gut. "How dare you!" Punch. "He is not a toy!" Punch. "He is not a THING to be OWNED." Punch. "He is my son! You will not manipulate him any longer!"

Kurama had enough, she transformed into her tailed beast form. She loomed over the fearless and enraged mother. **"You are in no position to be telling me-"** More chains came from all over the mindscape, wrapping themselves around Kurama's hind legs and tails, pulling her to the ground. Then, they lifted her in the air and slammed her on the ground harshly.

Kushina looked the demon dead in the eyes. "It's time you get locked back in your cage!" Kurama looked at Kushina in fear as the chains dragged her across the mindscape into her side. **"You can't do this to me! After everything I've done for-"**

SLAM

...

Silence.

Kushina breathed a sigh of relief. She was about to run out of chakra, which means that her time here with her son would be extremely limited, and she wouldn't know how long the seals she placed on Kurama's side of the midscape would last.

Naruto looked outside the cabin in shock. Standing not thirty feet in front of him was the mother he'd never gotten to even see his entire life. Kushina eventually taking notice of her son's presence ran to him as fast as she could. The young boy could hardly react as she enveloped him in a hug.

Kushina began to sob, "Naruto... I'm so sorry. I never meant for this to happen to you. Any of it." Naruto finally returned the hug. Naruto was stuck. Without Kurama telling him what to do or how to feel he didn't know how to react.

Kushina continued, "You don't need to forgive me, but what's important now is that you find a way to make it on your own." She was already beginning to fade. Naruto knew he should say something but he couldn't bring himself to.

"I've placed some seals on Kurama's side of the mindscape, they should hold her for a little bit until you can get your feet planted and you can fight her on your own." She was almost gone. Of all the things to ever go through Naruto's mind, truly fighting Kurama was not one of them, but he knew with how Kurama saw him he'd have to if he ever wanted to have control over his life.

"Thank you, mother." Naruto muttered softly. Kushina smiled and then she vanished.

...

Silence.

 _Real world, 2 days later_

Kakashi and Jiraiya knew that he landed in the river, that was easy. the hard part was that the river cut off into about eight or nine seperate streams through _Kawa no Kuni_ . (The land of Rivers) Finding Naruto would take some time and resources. Something they didn't really have at the moment.

Izumi was awake and currently healing in Takigakure along with the rest of the shinobi that went on the hunt for Naruto. When she got the news from Kakashi, she slammed her hand onto a nearby bedside table. She needed to dedicate her resources to defending Kusa and relocating the former Konoha shinobi into Kusa. Naruto would have to wait just a bit longer. Jiraiya however, continued the search.

Satsuki had heard of Naruto's escape. A part of her wanted to go after him to get some answers. Why he attacked the Konoha shinobi, and why did he leave her alive in Danzo's base. So she had decided to join Jiraiya. A decision Kakashi was not pleased with, but accepted as a way of venting about Izumi's presence.

Hikari was currently locked up in Takigakure, worried sick about Naruto. They refused to tell her anything about what happened after her embarrasing defeat to Izumi. The only thing they told her was that she would be taken with Izumi to Kusa for further questioning. Hikari groaned. She'd had enough of that bitch. She had hopes that Naruto would show up and save her again.

 _Kawa no Kuni_ (Land of Rivers)

A woman perched herself up in a tree. Birds and butterflies seemed drawn to her, as they were circling her. A fish leapt out of the water and crumpled a butterfly. It's paper folding and getting dragged underneath the water.

The woman reflected on how she got here.

 _Flashback_

It was raining as it always had in Ame no Kuni, (The Land of Rain) but there was something profoundly different about the circumstances of the land. The Zinra had been ravaging the outskirts of the hidden village, and moved quickly inwards towards Amegakure no Sato (Hidden Rain Village). They were almost upon them now, but Pein refused to leave without a fight.

Ever since Naruto had left, Konan felt the base was a bit darker than usual. There was something about him that could make even the rain in Amegakure seem happy. There was something about him that made her want to do better for the people of Amegakure than what little Pein had given them. But now, Konan didn't know what to do. The Zinra were almost upon them. Too many to count. No one in the village would survive their attack.

Pein looked out emotionlessly from the top of his tower in Amegakure. They were surrounded by Zinra on all sides now, the only escape route would be on the water, but even that might not be reliable. He assigned each Akatsuki member a position in the defense. Pein would face the brunt of them on the southern wall. Konan and Deidara would defend the East wall. Kakuzu and Hikari would defend the west wall. Izumi and Kisami would defend the North and Sasori and Zetsu would be support roles in the defense picking up the slack from any team.

Konan pleaded with Pein to evacuate the civilians, but he was having none of it even though Nagato had already fled to Kaminari no Kuni (The Land of Lightning). Konan fumed, and for the first time truly began to question her loyalty to Pein and Akatsuki. She had told the civilians to gather near the Northern wall, where the Zinra were bound to be weakest, for instructions to be evacuated without rousing Pein's attention. The only other person she trusted with this information was Deidara, her partner at the wall.

When the fight started, it was worse than Konan had originally thought. The Ame shinobi might as well have been cannon fodder, as the only ones able to truly hurt the Zinra were the Akatsuki members, but they too were getting tired. Pein and his paths were barely holding together through the onslaught of Zinra. Konan and Deidara had the easiest time, but even then it was a massacre. They were beginning to get over the walls. Sasori and Zetsu at least bought them some time.

Konan sent more explosive tags at the Zinra trying to pass over the wall, blowing the smaller ones to bits, but only knocking back the larger ones. "Konan! Look!" Deidara shouted desperately. The southern wall had been knocked down by a horrifyingly large Zinra, and the smaller ones funneled in right after it.

"Shit!" Deidara shouted angrily. "I'll hold them off Konan, get the civilians out of here! blow a path through the ones at the North gate, get Kisami and Izumi to help you. Go!"

Konan nodded and left, to clear a path. After explaining the situation at the southern wall to Izumi and Kisami, they also figured that now was as good a time as any to bug out. They took what little remained of the Ame Shinobi and led the charge into the Zinra. Konan created a reinforced wall of paper to shield the civilians and funnel the Zinra so Izumi and Kisami could make a clean path through.

A larger Zinra slammed into one of the walls, sending the civilians into a panic. Konan had to concentrate on keeping the wall in place. And Izumi and Kisami didn't really care about the civilians behind them.

Deidara flew overhead on a dragon made of clay and dumped what little explosive clay he had left on to the large one, sending it to the ground in a stupor. Konan flew some explosive tags to him while he was up in the air so he could continue supporting the group.

The large one from earlier got up once more, and began to devour the smaller Zinra clawing at the wall and soon became monsterous. It towered over Konan's wall which was easily fifty feet tall. It tore into it, and almost collapsed it with one swipe.

Deidara flew over head and tried pelting it with explosive tags, but they didn't even phase it anymore. It swiped at him, but to no avail. Deidara was beginning to run out of tags, and with them options.

"Konan, find Naruto and tell him that art is whatever he wants it to be." He spoke in an accepting tone. "Deidara what are you-" Before she could finish he dove his dragon right into the heart of the beast, knocking it back several hundred feet squashing the smaller Zinra beneath the larger one. Then an explosion shook the area, and the large one was dead. As was Deidara.

 _Flashback end_

Eventually, they had escaped with most of the civilians in tact. Izumi and Kisami left as soon as they could, but Konan ditched her Akatsuki cloak and stayed with the refugees until they wound up in Kawa no Kuni, where to this day Konan defends them with her life.

Now she was here sitting on this branch taking one of her few down times to truly relax herself. Well. That was the plan until she spotted a bloodied young man floating downstream. It wasn't until she had taken him out of the water and gotten close that she realized that this boy was indeed Naruto Uzumaki.

 **That's it for chapter 22. I hope you guys enjoyed! Make sure to leave a review if you have a thought you'd like to share!**


	23. Chapter 23

**Hey guys, I'm back. Sorry for the delay, hopefully, I'll find some time to update soon. Leave a review if you have any criticism or praise. PM me if I made a mistake somewhere and I'll fix it. Thanks so much guys! \**

 **~Howl's Curse**

He opened his eyes slowly. It was dark, but still bright enough to see. He was laying on some kind of stone table. Not the most comfortable of accommodations, but better than the dirt ground. The room he was in looked old, ancient maybe. Vines dangled off of the stone walls and the sound of flowing water was coming from all around him. The door to whatever room he was in was closed, but frail. 'Easy enough to break through' He thought to himself. Slowly, he sat himself up. Every muscle in his body urged him to lay back down, but Naruto wasn't having it.

He stood up, his legs began to falter underneath his own weight. Taking a deep breath, he slowly walked to the door. He analyzed the door in front of him, sizing it up. He once again took in a deep breath and channeled what little chakra he could into his leg and attempted to kick down the door.

The door opened before his kick hit its mark. His kick went through the doorway and would've planted Naruto's foot right in a young woman's gut had an elderly woman not caught the blow in an open palm. She didn't even move under the force of the kick. It took the younger woman a few seconds to realize what had just happened and she jumped back shortly after.

The elderly woman threw Naruto on to the ground harshly. He groaned out its pain. The elderly woman slowly hobbled up to his prone form, her quarterstaff tapping the floor as she walked. "You know, the door was unlocked," She said sweetly. Naruto snarled and was about to try something when the glorified stick landed dead on the top of his head, sending his world spinning.

"Ayame, come help me put him back on his bed." Ayame slowly entered the room and helped the elderly woman place him back on his bed. Then the elderly woman grabbed a chain attached to the wall by his bed and restrained his hands. "I told Konan to tie him up but she refused." She said to Ayame while sighing. Naruto had barely registered what she said at all and slowly began to snap out of it.

"Konan..." He remembered the blue haired Akatsuki member quite well. Surely this was the same Konan. He tried to remove the restraints, but they would not budge. He was too weak still. He grit his teeth. "Where is Konan?" He asked as he slowly began to stop trying to break free.

"Oh-hoh. So you two are indeed acquainted. Well, she is out cleaning out the Zinra that have been drawn to our little slice of the elemental nations by none other than yourself." She said matter-of-factly.

Naruto definitely did not like this old woman. "We can discuss your relationship with Konan later, though. You can call me Eiko. What is your name, boy?" She said, scrutinizing the young man.

Naruto thought for a moment. Telling people his name might not go over very well. "Ara-" He was interrupted by a familiar glorified stick finding its way on top of his head once more. "First a fool, now a liar as well? Typical." Naruto rubbed his head. The stick really hurt.

"Fine- My name is Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto." He grumbled out. At this Eiko seemed pleased. Ayame simply took a few steps back, once again in shock. "Naru-chan?" She thought aloud as a picture of a small eight year old Naruto sat happily, waiting for his ramen, at one of the stools he couldn't get onto by himself at her father's shop. That picture was quickly replaced by the picture of the handsome (Albeit, slightly worse for wear) young man in front of her.

Naruto just raised an eyebrow. "What... did you just call me?" He questioned, irked. Ayame's face instantly turned red with embarrassment upon realizing what she said. "I-I'm sorry, but surely you must remember me... right?" She asked. Now that she mentioned it she did look kind of familiar. Naruto couldn't quite place it though, his time in the Ten no Meisou with Kurama had washed most of what happened before away. Naruto just looked at the ground, lost in thought.

"Well, we were originally here to check up on you, but it looks like you just need some rest. We'll leave you here until Konan gets back. Both she and apparently Ayame have a lot of explaining to do." She said before she left with Ayame.

Naruto let out a deep sigh. 'I can't afford to be wasting my time here... Maybe Konan can help me out.'

 _With Eiko_

The elderly woman had seen many sorry men in her days. This... _Naruto_... Seemed like nothing but trouble for her and her students. Konan had vouched for him, and now Ayame had only good to say about him. But something pulled at the back of her mind telling her not to trust him. She sat in a meditative position in her dojo.

Ever since the Zinra threat became real, she'd become the leader of the small, now rapidly growing village in Kawa no Kuni. The rivers seemed to discourage the smaller Zinra from entering their territory. There were also large stone walls around the village manned 24/7 by her students.

Speaking of her students. She was very proud of all of them. They held up against the apocalypse better than most seasoned shinobi in the major villages. Since the Ame refugees showed up, she had no hard time finding willing students. The people of Ame had all but thrown themselves at her to teach them how to fight, but she had only one catch.

She refused to teach men. They were too brash, and arrogant. Inpatient as well. This was not some bias that she held against them. She had tried hundreds of times to teach men the ways of her temple. No man had ever been able to truly master her teachings, so she gave up on men altogether.

The men of Amegakure instead spent most of their time farming or fishing in the rivers surrounding the village. It had its flaws. But it worked. As far as she was concerned she was leading the most successful group in all of the elemental nations against the Zinra. She was right.

 _With Konan_

Konan was exhausted. Mopping up the Zinra following Naruto was no small feat, and she felt rather drained afterward. But it was worth it, right? Naruto was alive! She made her way towards Naruto's room.

On her way, Ayame walked right into her, clearly lost in thought. The bowl of ramen she had prepared for Naruto spilled all over Konan's temple robes.

"Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry" She said as she began frantically cleaning up the ramen on the floor. She had prepared an entire batch just for Naruto so one bowl was no big deal to her, but Konan's clothes were covered in ramen broth.

"It's fine" Konan sighed. She took in a deep breath and went to her chambers to get changed. There would be time to check in on Naruto later.

 _With Ayame_

She had just refilled her bowl with ramen. She was kind of giddy at seeing Naruto again. It was the first semblance of normal she'd gotten since being forced out of Konoha. Teuchi had died during the Zinra invasion, but by some miracle, she'd managed to survive and stumbled upon this safe haven. She had since begun her training under Eiko.

She ran back to Naruto's room, this time making sure not to run into anyone. When she had arrived Naruto was laying on his bed with his eyes closed. She had figured he was asleep, so she set the bowl down on a table near his bed and moved closer to him.

She studied him for a moment. He had grown so much since she had last seen him. In the nine years since his disappearance, he'd grown quite a bit taller. He was muscular but still lean and looked agile. His face had lost all of the baby fat from before. Overall, he looked super attractive. Her face blushed a dark red when the thought entered her mind.

She shook out of it though. 'Now is not the time for fantasizing!' She thought to herself. She gently reached over with one hand and placed it on Naruto's shoulder. He opened his eyes slowly. "I brought you something to eat," Ayame said with a smile as she reached over and picked up the bowl.

Naruto just closed his eyes again and said, "Not hungry". It was just then that his stomach betrayed him and let out a loud growl. He was VERY hungry.

Ayame frowned and placed the bowl in front of his face. "Come on Naruto. You know you wanna, I made a special batch just for you." She said with a disappointed tone.

Naruto took a breath in through his nose. Whatever food Ayame had brought him smelled absolutely godlike! Instantly his eyes shot open. "Alright, fine." He said, trying to play it cool on the inside. Ayame could tell by his body language that he was bluffing, and a smile crept its way onto her face as he sat up.

He motioned to the restraints around his wrists. "Eiko said those stay on until Konan comes back, so until then I'll be... feeding you." She said with a small blush. Naruto blushed slightly as well. The only other person who'd done something like this with him was Kurama. She'd probably kill him if she ever found out about this. Something Naruto needed to fix, but for now, he'd accept Ayame's offer.

He took one bite of the ramen, and all of the memories came flooding back to him. Immediately after he swallowed. He looked at Ayame with a newfound sense of friendship. "Ayame-Onee-chan?" He said slowly. Ayame looked like tears were coming to her eyes. She put down the bowl of ramen and embraced him. She began to cry. "I missed you so much, Naruto... I'm so glad you're safe." Naruto was shocked but soon got over it.

Naruto spent the next few hours trading stories with Ayame as she fed him. This was really the first time that he'd been able to share what happened to him with someone. He felt leaps and bounds better with Ayame in his company. Unbeknownst to him, his mindscape began to slowly return to its peaceful state.

For the first time, in a long time. Naruto felt at peace.


	24. Chapter 24

**Hey guys, I managed to pump out one more quick chapter! Hope you guys enjoy. :) Make sure to leave a review and PM me if I made a mistake somewhere.**

 _Kusagakure_

The cool night breeze blew against Izumi's face as she gazed out at the endless plains of tall grass that gave Kusagakure its name. Her thoughts remained on the young boy who had somehow managed to slip out of her grasp once again. She hoped that at the very least he was alive. Maybe whatever happened in the tsukuyomi had freed Naruto from Kurama's grasp. That was her being too optimistic in her mind though.

The addition of the Konoha shinobi to her village gave her men some much needed rest. The added security was certainly nice. They had more mouths to feed now, but Kusagakure had been one of the few villages with some semblance of agricultural independance, and had been making more food than they were consuming. It was a meager diet, that consisted of mostly rice, but better than starving.

Kakashi had informed her that Satsuki had accompanied Jiraiya in his search for Naruto. Her little sister had better mind her own buisness if she knew what was good for her. She somewhat trusted Jiraiya though. He was too soft though. She cared for Naruto, but he also had the potential to be a serious asset against the Zinra. If he left the fight to go 'heal himself' with the toads, it could be too late by the time he returns to the fight. She had no intention of following through on the deal she'd struck with the toad sannin. She could provide any healing Naruto needed and more. She was sure of it.

She just needed some way of ensuring that he would truly come back to her. Even if it wasn't by choice. She mulled over her options. She could try the tsukuyomi again, but what would stop him from breaking out of it again? Jiraiya certainly wouldn't do put some type of seal on the boy if he knew her intentions, so seals were pretty much out of the picture... Or were they? Izumi had stumbled across a scroll that contained the strokes for a control seal in Hikari's belongings. She decided that she would brush up on her sealing, or find someone with the skill and willingness to do what needed to be done. She smirked. That would work.

 _With Konan_

The ex-Akatsuki member was about to enter Naruto's room when she heard laughter coming from inside. She opened the door slowly and peeked inside. Naruto had a noodle stuck to his face right above his upper lip. Ayame looked like she was hardly breathing and Naruto gave off a genuine laugh. Finally, he slurped the noodle into his mouth and tried to calm Ayame down.

Konan was caught up in Naruto's smile. 'He's back. And he doesn't seemed to have changed too much since he was gone.' She was happy he was safe and doing well.

Apparently, she'd been looking on for too long. Naruto had taken notice of her presence and stopped laughing and smiling. "You can come out now."

Konan slowly stepped into the room. She directed her attention to Ayame, "Shouldn't you be training right now Ayame?" She asked as if she were telling her to leave.

"Oh crap, I lost track of the time. I'll see you later Naruto-kun, it was good seeing you." She said with a smile. Naruto just smiled back at her, "Okay, come find me again when you get the chance."

Ayame slowly packed up her things and left the room.

Things were quiet between Naruto and Konan for a moment before she slowly approached him and undid his bindings. Naruto didn't quite know what to expect from her he was about to speak, but she slapped him. Hard. "Gah! what the-" He was interupted by Konan, "That was for vanishing for so long." She quickly pulled him into a tender hug. "This is for staying alive. Idiot." She said, as she fought to hold back tears. Naruto slowly returned the hug.

"I was so worried when I realized that it was you that I'd pulled out of the stream." She said as she pulled away from Naruto. "I ran you back here, to Seiki as fast I could. What happened to you?" She asked.

Naruto just rubbed the back of his head and looked at the corner of the room, trying to avoid eye contact with Konan. "It's... a long story. I'll explain it to you later." He said awkwardly. Konan frowned slightly, but accepted the delay. He'd been through a lot recently. "Why don't you go clean up, Naruto. I'll show you around Seiki as soon as you're finished." Naruto just nodded. He could use a shave and a good shower about now.

 _Somewhere in Kawa no Kuni_

Another river that led nowhere. Satsuki was beginning to get frustrated. She couldn't understand how Jiraiya wasn't getting upset with the lack of results as well.

Jiraiya for his part could easily tell Satsuki was upset, she probably wasn't used to things taking this long. This was no easy search. It needed to be slow and methodical, otherwise they would miss something that led to Naruto.

Satsuki groaned. She was beginning to think that coming out here was a waste of time. This Naruto was clearly insanely powerful, but no one survives a fight like that with her sister, and that's not including the sannin that was fighting with her, or the ANBU support. If he didn't die initially, he was bound to be dead now.

"Relax, we'll find something soon." Jiraiya spoke as they headed down the next section of river. "How can you say that? He couldn't possibly-" She cut herself off. She noticed something dangling from a stray branch on the river bank.

It was a necklace. Clearly made of bone, but where had she seen it before?

She stopped moving for a moment, and Jiraiya just looked at her intently. "He couldn't possibly what?"

Without saying a word she moved towards the necklace. She picked it up and examined it a bit more thoroughly. Naruto was wearing it in Danzo's base when they first met. "I think we've got a trail now" She said to Jiraiya.

 _Seiki_

Naruto had just stepped out of the bathroom. He was now wearing a fresh new set of clothes, courtesy of Seiki. A black T-shirt and black pants, along with a new pair of ninja sandals. Naruto let out a deep breath. 'Much better' He thought to himself. Konan looked at him for a moment and smirked. "You ready?" She asked.

"Yeah, let's go." He responded.

They slowly walked down the halls of the temple. Making small talk until they finally entered one of the training halls. As soon as they had entered, the students had stopped sparring. They all stared at the newcomer.

Konan could sense their attraction to the young man, but she could pretty clearly tell he was getting rather uncomfortable. "Back to work ladies! Nothing to see here." They snapped out if it and returned to their regular training routine for the most part. There were still a few who kept looking back every once in a while, and the occasional few who would look over at Naruto and giggle amongst eachother.

Most of what Konan said went in one ear and out the other for Naruto. He couldn't really handle the stares they were giving him. He had flashbacks to his childhood and spaced out for a bit.

Konan eventually sensed this, and put a hand on his shoulder. Nartuo jumped as he snapped out of his thoughts. "Are you okay Naruto?" She asked softly.

"I'll be okay, thanks for asking though." He responded looking down at the floor. Konan stood there for a moment looking at him intently. "How about we go outside of the temple for now?" She asked. Naruto just nodded and followed her.

The rest of the evening went well, Naruto started to warm up to Konan again. The ex-Akatsuki member doubted he'd start calling her 'Onee-chan' again, but this was a start. Naruto still hadn't explained anything about his disappearance, but she would let him tell her when he was ready.

She dropped him off at his room and told him where to find her if he needed her. Naruto entered his room and closed the door behind him. He landed on his bed harshly. Today was the best day he'd had in a long time. He closed his eyes and fell asleep.

 _Naruto/Kurama's Mindscape_

For the last several hours Naruto's midscape was filled with the sounds of an angry Kurama beating against her cage. Kurama was going crazy. She saw Naruto's side of the mindscape start to heal. 'How could that be happening without me there?' She had no idea what was happening with Naruto and it was driving her crazy.

She felt so alone without him. It had been so long since she'd been alone, and now she didn't know what to do. She had started crying a while ago, but her sadness quickly turned to anger for Kushina.

'I need him with me. He needs me too. I love him. Why can't he see that I do everything for him.' She started getting more upset. She could feel the seal weakening with every passing moment. 'Things will be back to normal soon,' She thought to herself. She pictured sleeping with Naruto once more, and comforting him in her arms.

He would be hers again.

 _With Naruto_

Naruto felt a shiver go down his spine. He looked at the clock as he woke up. '2AM' It read. Naruto had been quite some time since he'd slept alone. He was rather cold. The stone bedding and thin sheets weren't aiding in his staying asleep either.

Naruto slowly got out of bed and went to the bathroom to wash his face. In the distance he could hear the sounds of someone training in the dojo. He slowly walked towards the sounds and entered as quietly as he could.

Ayame had been practicing since all the other apprentices had gone to bed. She found a new sense of purpose with Naruto's arrival and wanted to become strong enough to at least protect herself and maybe Naruto while he was injured.

She was panting heavily, clearly exhausted though. She'd decided to turn in for the night, when she saw Naruto watching her train. "I didn't know you were learning how to fight Ayame-chan, you were doing well." He said. She blushed at his compliment. "Thanks Naruto-kun, shouldn't you be asleep though?" She inquired. Naruto just shrugged. "It's too cold, plus if I'm honest the stone bedding is not exactly the most comfortable." Ayame just giggled slightly. "You'll get used to it eventually."

Naruto gave a light chuckle as well. Something about Ayame drew him to her. She wasn't powerful, and she was no where near the level of beauty that Kurama or Izumi had. But she cared about him. She was simple. Laid back. Easy to read. Most importantly though, she didn't boss him around. She didn't manipulate him.

He walked her back to her room, and gave her a hug. As they were pulling away from their hug, Ayame kissed him on the cheek and said, "Goodnight, Naruto-kun," and walked as quickly as she could into her room.

She was blushing like crazy. She couldn't get him out of her mind. His presence was intoxicating and she couldn't help herself. She went to her bed, and slept soundly that night.

Naruto for his part was kind of in shock. He placed his hand over the spot on his cheek that she had kissed. That was the first time anyone had ever kissed him outside of his mindscape, even if it was only on the cheek, it felt nice. He walked back to his room slowly and fell back asleep, content to see Ayame again in the morning.


	25. Chapter 25

Naruto awoke to knocking at his door. He stretched his body. Most of the pain from yesterday was still present. His drained chakra reserves had recovered a little bit since his narrow escape from Izumi. He didn't remember much of what happened, but he knew that Izumi and Kurama wound up fighting one another and Hikari was presumably captured. Naruto didn't know what to do. He wanted to save Hikari, but he hadn't even fully recovered from his previous injuries. As much as he hated it, Izumi would easily outclass him without Kurama's help. He was stuck. Hikari would have to wait.

"Come in" Naruto said mid yawn. The door opened to reveal Ayame carrying a tray full of food. Nothing crazy, just some cooked fish and rice. She smiled at Naruto, "Good morning Naruto-kun. I brought you breakfast. I won't be able to stick around long though, training starts soon."

Naruto nodded and accepted the tray of food. The two enjoyed eachother's company for a bit until Ayame needed to leave.

The young man slowly prepared himself for the day ahead, and decided that he would take a look around Seiki for himself.

The small village was pretty cramped. The refugees from Ame took up most non-essential space inside the wall surrounding the village. Seiki itself was constructed on a small island out in the middle of a large lake. The crumpled remains of a stone bridge that once led to shore were visible in the almost impossibly clear water. Overall the view of the world surrounding Seiki was stunning.

With Naruto's enhanced vision he could even see Zinra swimming around in the water in the distance. They were small for Zinra, but no doubt deadly. The wall would easily keep them out.

Naruto could tell that the men of the settlement were itching to fight the Zinra and protect their new home, but they were bitter that Eiko refused to teach them the ways of her fighting style. They had some combat training, but they were still just civilians, better suited to non-combat support roles in his mind anyways.

With that, Naruto returned to the temple. He walked into the dojo and saw the apprentices sparring. As soon as he walked in, the apprentices stepped up their game. Ayame and her current opponent were in a heated fight. "Hey Ayame look, it's your boyfriend." Her opponent said, causing Ayame to blush. "He's not my-" She was almost caught offguard when her opponent got in close and let forth a flurry of attacks, most of which Ayame was barely able to dodge. She didn't escape without a few bruises though.

She was breathing heavy, 'I can't afford to look weak in front of Naruto' She thought to herself. Even though she knew her opponent was definetely stronger than her. Eiko slowly walked towards the spectating young man. She spoke to the dueling pair, "Ayame, don't get distracted. Fuyo while I appreciate your drive to win, win with honor." They both nodded and resumed their fight.

For most shinobi it would be considered a fast paced fight. Both Fuyo and Ayame were moving and striking at speeds that could best most rookie Jonin. Naruto was shocked that Ayame could go from being a civilian to what seemed to be a seasoned fighter in the time he was away. Whatever Eiko's reasoning for not training men, he couldn't argue with the results the female apprentices were achieving.

The fight continued, but Fuyo's kept pushing Ayame back, never giving her the opening she needed to make a decent strike. She could taste the blood in her mouth, and her breathing had become erratic. She didn't know if she could continue much longer.

At this point all of the apprentices in the dojo had crowded around the fight. According to all of their whispers Fuyo had yet to be defeated by another student.

"You can do it Ayame-chan!" Naruto cheered. Most of the girls in the room turned green with jealousy. Including Fuyo. Eiko spoke up again, "Ayame, if Fuyo wins this fight I'll have her be Naruto's caretaker instead."

Fuyo smirked. Ayame saw the look on Fuyo's face. She thought she was going to win, Ayame needed to prove her wrong. Fuyo's offensive contuinued, she threw a barrage of punches at Ayame. The ramen chef narrowly deflected the punches.

Fuyo spun around and would've connected a kick to Ayame's gut had the underdog not sidestepped out of the way and grabbed her leg. Ayame used the energy of Fuyo's kick to spin her and throw her back across the arena.

Fuyo recovered just in time to block Ayame's gradually slowing attacks. Eventually she caught one of Ayame's fists. Ayame sent her other fist at Fuyo's face, but it was caught as well. Fuyo smirked before Ayame let out a yell and planted her forehead right on Fuyo's nose sending her stumbling back until Ayame connected a kick to her face. A resounding 'THUD' was heard throughout the dojo as Fuyo hit the ground unconcious.

Ayame fell to her hands and knees breathing heavily. Shocked at her own victory. The other apprentices were silent until Naruto started clapping, at that point the rest joined in. Eiko just looked on with a smile.

Some of Fuyo's friends took her to the temple infirmary as Ayame finally got back up on her feet. She looked at a smiling Naruto, and gave a small chuckle. She slowly walked over to him and gave him a hug.

Eiko cleared her throat. "Why don't you go clean up and take the rest of the day off Ayame." Ayame nodded and left the dojo with Naruto following close behind.

 _With Satsuki_

The young Uchiha woman had stumbled across a field full of Zinra corpses, little scraps of paper could be seen throughout the field. "Yo, Jiraiya, over here!" She whispered loudly.

Jiraiya leapt down from a tree and examined the battlefield. Several 'Hunter' class Zinra and one 'Goliath' class Zinra lay dead. Little bits of torn up paper littered their bodies. Upon further examination he determined that they weren't exploding tags. There were no scorch marks along the edges of the paper.

There was only one real conclusion in Jiraiya's mind. Konan. This was troubling indeed. Last he'd heard, his former apprentice Konan was working with Akatsuki. Jiraiya mulled over his options and sent a letter back to Kusa.

"We're going to do some preliminary reconnosaince, and see if we can't pinpoint Naruto's location. We'll make a decision when we find him as to whether or not we need backup." Jiraiya said, monotonously.

Satsuki nodded, whoever this Konan was, she must be strong to be a part of Akatsuki. Not as strong as Izumi, but it made sense that they might need some backup. Satsuki didn't understand why everyone was chasing after Naruto though. He was strong, sure, but he seemed wild and untamed, and he was only one man.

Satsuki shrugged. Ever since she'd seen Naruto in Danzo's base, she felt like she'd seen him before. Why would he attack Konoha shinobi if he were from Konoha? Sure they might've treated him badly, but it couldn't have been that bad. Could it?

She had no idea.

 _Kusagakure_

Izumi had just recieved word from Jiraiya. It would be a couple of weeks before she could mobilize a task force. Zinra activity has been at an all time high, and Oriko had been spotted in the vicinity of Kusagakure.

Izumi put her head in her palms and sighed. She had gotten relatively no sleep the night prior. Nightmares of what Naruto must have gone through at the hands of Kurama to turn him into the thing that she fought in the forest surrounding Taki made her shudder. She didn't want the boy to suffer anymore, but he was stubborn.

She somewhat doubted her plan to keep Naruto with her, but it was the only way to ensure his safety. His kyubified voice filled her head again and only steeled her resolve. If he was alone Kurama was bound to overpower him again.

She had been unable to find someone capable of using the seal she had acquired, but she had begun to read up on it. It took a lot of chakra and uninterrupted time drawing the seal. She was sure she could handle it, but she would certainly need to train in the art so she didn't make a mistake.

It was then that her office doors flung open. A Kusagakure Jonin stepped in and spoke, "Your elite guard have captured Oriko." He said with a smirk.

Izumi smiled. This would be fun.

 _Kusagakure Prison_

A blood covered Oriko lay chained to a table, She was laughing for a bit before hacking up blood. Then she started screaming in pain as the Kusagakure torture team started going to town on the snake Sannin.

Izumi looked down at her with hate filled eyes. This was the reason the world was so fucked. This sorry excuse for a snake. It pissed her off to no end. "Why were you in Kusa territory?" The torturer asked monotonously. Oriko just laughed, "Oh I didn't know this was Kusagakure, I thought I was in Kiri-AHHH" She screamed as they dug bamboo underneath her finger nails. They stopped for a minute and Oriko began laughing again. They were about to resume the torture when Izumi waved them off.

She stared into Oriko's eyes. **'Tsukuyomi'** She said as she pulled the snake sannin into the genjutsu. Approximately three seconds later, she spilled the beans.

"I was in Kusagakure looking for Tsunade to help me with a cure to the Zinra Virus, I received a tip from an informant that she had arrived in Kusagakure about a week ago. I was also looking to recruit more people to hunt down Subject Zero: Naruto, and Subject One: Juugo, to further the same goal." She said then passed out.

Izumi looked down at the unconscious snake sannin. If Oriko was looking for a cure, it was more likely that she was going to use it as leverage to gain power, as opposed to her growing a conscience, but that was unimportant. She wanted to find Naruto and cure the Zinra disease. That put her in enough alignment with Izumi's goals for her to tentatively call her a potential ally... maybe.

Another important matter. Tsunade had snuck into her village, and Izumi didn't know until now. She looked to a few of the Jonin in the room. "Find Tsunade, and bring her to my office. Also, leave Oriko restrained but keep her alive. Feel free to torture her if she wakes up and gets annoying though." Izumi said, exhausted.

"HA!" Was their reply as they dashed through the village on the hunt for the ever absent Slug Sannin.

She probably shouldn't have used the Tsukuyomi like that. She was drained as it was, but her loss of vision was about to become a problem.

 _Seiki_

Konan had wanted to spend some time with Naruto today. But he left the temple with Ayame quite some time ago. She was frustrated. She hadn't expected Naruto and Ayame to recognize eachother so quickly and get a long so well. She knew from the start that they were acquainted. Akatsuki had a file on the girl and her father because of their closeness to the boy when he was young. She began searching for him on the wall.

She enjoyed his company, and based on his chakra signatures he was no doubt much more powerful than he was before he left Akatsuki. He could help Seiki expand, and take the fight to the Zinra. Together they could no doubt push them back. She wanted to be there with him.

She knew that she wanted to protect and take care of him, but she hadn't expected this kind of emotional response from herself. She took in a deep breath. She hadn't felt like this since she was a young girl training with Jiraiya. She began to revel in the memories. Naruto reminded her so much of Yahiko.

She looked out at the lake for a moment. She saw two figures walking slowly across the water towards Seiki.

 **Hey guys! Howl's Curse here, I've had a bit of free time recently but that's about to disappear. I might update one more time before June, but I doubt it'll be more than that. Thanks for sticking around guys! Be sure to leave a review as well!**


	26. Chapter 26

**Okay, so I may have lied. I was able to write another chapter again today. We'll see if this is going to be a recurring theme or not. Anyways. Thanks for reading you guys! Be sure to leave a review to let me know what you thought.**

Naruto and Ayame stood in a crowd of Seiki villagers as they watched a play, a rendition of one of Koyuki's famous movies. Of course, all of this was nonsense to Naruto _'So people gather in places like this and watch other people PRETEND to be great warriors?'_ Naruto looked on at the scene in boredom. He looked over at Ayame. She was completely entranced by this 'play' unfolding before them. _'Even if all this is stupid, I'm glad I'm here with Ayame'._ He spent the rest of the play watching Ayame's reactions, watching her smile.

Eventually the play came to a conclusion, and Ayame continued showing Naruto the more important parts of Seiki, but Naruto ignored her words and focused on her voice and her smile.

The two eventually wound up on the Eastern shore of the village, outside the walls. The two old friends set their feet in the water and got to talking. "You know, my father used to take me to plays like that one all the time. I was always fascinated by them, even as a little girl." She chuckled. "I miss him so much." She said, looking out at the view of the lake.

Naruto extended his hand and placed it on hers. Kurama used to do that whenever he was feeling upset. The contact sent chills down the young pairs spines. They locked eyes, and they moved closer. The two were about to kiss when Naruto's head began to throb. "Gah!" He held his head in pain, as a small dribble of blood trickled down his nose. "Naruto!" Ayame shouted as she placed a hand on his shoulder. "I'm fine." Naruto said as he shook off the pain. _'No I'm not'_ "No you're not" Ayame said.

"Tell me what that was Naruto. Are you okay?" She asked sincerely. Naruto looked into her eyes, ' _Damn her and that face'_ He thought to himself. "I- I don't know Ayame. I have a demon sealed inside of me and she did something to my head. I don't know how, but if I do something that goes against what she wants me to do my head feels like it'll explode. Even though she's been quelled for now." He explained.

Ayame was infuriated. She knew about the demon inside Naruto. How could she not after seeing the way the villagers treated and spoke of him. She didn't know the demon was messing with his head though. Whatever this demon had done was too far. Naruto spent the next hour filling in Ayame about the events that took place up until now.

They were heading back towards the temple as the sun began to set when Naruto saw a familiar Silver haired 'godfather' in the distance entering the temple with a dark haired female and Konan leading the way. 'Shit' Naruto thought to himself as he ducked behind cover.

Satsuki had turned around to look behind her when she sensed something, but Naruto had already found a hiding spot so a confused Ayame was all that she saw. She was about to walk over to the woman in question when she was urged into the temple by Konan.

 _With Konan_

 _FLASHBACK_

When Konan saw Jiraiya heading towards Seiki, she gave a small smile. It had been a very long time since Konan had seen her old mentor. She ordered the guards to open the gate to the village and let them in.

Konan jumped from the wall and landed right at the entrance to the village. When Jiraiya and Satsuki had walked in, she greeted them with a smile. At seeing a friendly Konan, Jiraiya just closed the distance between them and hugged her. "We saw the dead Zinra in the area and I recognized the jutsu as yours. I'm so glad you're alive." Jiraiya said, taking a load off. Seeing one of his apprentices alive and not an enemy was certainly a pleasant suprise.

Konan returned the hug. "It's been too long Jiraiya-sensei." She replied as they seperated. Jiraiya spoke up again. "Are Yahiko and Nagato here too?" He asked hopefully. Konan just looked down at the ground and shook her head. "They didn't make it." She said in a low voice.

Jiraiya frowned. "I see..."

A few moments of awkward silence were broken by Konan. "So, what brings you two here?" She said, while studying Satsuki. She looked so much like her sister that Konan would've mistaken her for Izumi had she not checked their chakra signatures. Izumi's was much larger and much more dense than Satsuki's.

"We're here looking for someone. They killed a lot of good people, and we're here to find them and bring them back to Kusa." Satsuki said plainly. Jiraiya just nodded and confirmed what she was saying. _'They couldn't be referring to Naruto... could they?'_ Konan thought to herself. _'The Naruto I know would never do anything like that'_ She reassured herself.

"Why don't I take you to the village leader, she could probably help you more than I could." Konan said, while motioning for them to follow her.

 _END FLASHBACK_

They had just walked into Eiko's personal chambers. Eiko simply told them to sit and wait to talk about a matter this serious after she'd made some tea for them.

They all sat on coushins around a table, Eiko had just sat down and began sipping her tea while Jiraiya explained. "We've tracked a dangerous fugitive to the general area. He's responsible for the murders of many good people and were wondering if you'd seen him."

Eiko placed her teacup on the table slowly. "We don't get many visitors around here... as you can imagine. Maybe if you described him or gave me a name, I could help you."

Jiraiya just nodded. "He's kind of tall. Blonde hair, blue eyes, whisker marks on his cheeks. His name is Uzumaki Naruto." Eiko frowned. She couldn't sense that Jiraiya was lying to her, but she felt like something was being left out.

 _'What! There's no way Naruto would ever do anything like that! He must've been framed or maybe Sensei is lying'_ The blue haired beauty thought to herself'. "Konan, you told me the boy wouldn't hurt a fly and now I hear this?" Eiko questioned harshly.

Jiraiya and Satsuki just looked at each other, Satsuki nodded and Jiraiya smirked. "He wouldn't though! Jiraiya, what you're saying can't possibly be true!" Konan let her emotions come to the surface.

Jiraiya looked at her and spoke, "I wish it weren't, but a few days ago he and Hikari were responsible for the deaths of about a hundred Taki Shinobi and at least fifty Konoha Shinobi. Granted, the Kyuubi has been running loose through Naruto's mind since he left Akatsuki, maybe even before that according to Izumi."

He paused for a moment and then continued, "I've been trying to track him down for some time now. We finally managed to find him but he slipped through our fingers and apparently wound up here."

Konan and Eiko seemed to take in the information for a few moments. Konan finally spoke. ' _So he's being manipulated by the Kyuubi...'_ Konan breathed a mental sigh of relief. That wasn't the Naruto she knew, but maybe he could be saved. "You say you can help him?"

"I know I can, but with the Kyuubi's guidance and chakra it's almost impossible to fight him, let alone capture him. Even Izumi couldn't stop him." Jiraiya added. At this Eiko blanched. _'Perhaps I underestimated the boy a tad'_ She thought to herself.

"We'll help you any way we can, Jiraiya-san. He should still be in the village somewhere... Ayame isn't going to like this..." Eiko said with a sigh.

"Ayame?" Satsuki questioned.

"Yes, a young woman under my tutelage who's taken a... liking to the boy. Apparently they were childhood friends in Konoha. From what I've heard from her, Konoha treated him less than desirably, perhaps that's why the boy is like you say he is now." She pondered.

Satsuki just looked down. Maybe this Ayame had some answers about Naruto.

Will she be a problem?" Satsuki followed up.

"No, I'm certain she'll understand. And if she doesn't she won't be too much of an issue."

Jiraiya slowly stood up. "Well then, I don't think Satsuki and I should go out and look for him. Where does he sleep? Perhaps we can catch him off guard." He said.

'I can't really hurt Naruto like that...' Konan thought to herself. _'But this is for his own good! If he's got the demon running around in his head telling him what to do he might never truly go back to the way he was. I have to save him!'_ A fire filled her eyes that one could only obtain when protecting someone they cared for.

Eiko didn't like the thought of jumping the young boy in his sleep, but if he was as strong as these outsiders were saying they would need every advantage they could get. "He stays here in the temple, we can simply wait for his return." Eiko answered.

Satsuki smirked. 'We've got him this time for sure.'

 _Meanwhile, With Naruto_

Naruto's face had quickly turned from that of happiness to that of seriousness. "Ayame, I need to leave. Now." Naruto said desperately to a confused, somewhat scared Ayame.

"What are you talking about? You're still hurt! Plus, you just got here-" Ayame was interrupted by Naruto, who grabbed her hand. "Those people Konan just took into the temple are after me, they want to take me away to Izumi."

Ayame was flustered for a moment but spoke softly, "Where are would you go?" She asked.

"I don't know, but I need to buy myself time to fix my problems with Kurama. I can't deal with more enemies right now. Maybe Suna?" He said.

"Naruto, just stay here for a bit, okay? Eiko won't let them take you." She said confidently.

She had no idea just how tempting those words were to Naruto. _'Maybe she's right. Maybe I really can trust Eiko and Konan. They wouldn't sell me out to Izumi like that, right?'_ Naruto thought to himself. 'I want nothing more than to stay here with you, Ayame.' He wanted to say aloud.

Naruto was stuck for a moment, but his paranoia and his gut were telling him to leave. "Ayame, I'll stay here for a few more hours, but if they're not gone by then I have to leave. I'm sorry." Ayame nodded, at least there was hope for him to stay.

The two got comfy and huddled up next to each other watching the temple intently. Time slowly passed. The sky began to darken until night was in full swing.

 _With Jiraiya_

Something was wrong. Naruto should've showed up by now. The Ayame girl hadn't returned either. Could Naruto have seen him enter? It was entirely possible, but Satsuki should've seen him first.

Jiraiya slowly peered out a window on the second story of the temple. The village was near silent, but it was pretty well lit. Jiraiya knew he couldn't afford to wait any longer, it was time to find Naruto.

Konan sent out her paper with a message asking Naruto to return to the temple as soon as possible and dispersed them all throughout the village. 'Hopefully this will at least draw him out' She thought to herself. Then, the four of them split into teams of two (Jiraiya and Eiko, Konan and Satsuki) and began to scour the village.

 _With Naruto_

The young man had recieved the message loud and clear. Konan and Eiko had no intention of protecting him. Tears threatened to form at the corners of his eyes. 'Betrayed again... I really can't trust any-' He stopped himself and looked over at Ayame's shocked expression. 'I can trust her. I need to get out of here now though.' Naruto thought desperately.

He quickly formulated an escape plan.

 _With Satsuki_

Satsuki ran along the rooftops, sharingan blaring, looking for her target. Wherever he was, he was dug in pretty well. She stopped on the tallest building in the village and looked around. At first she saw nothing, but finally, she found something. A faint trace of demonic chakra hidden in an alleyway. 'Gotcha!' She thought with excitement.

She signaled to the others and they moved in. Konan and Satsuki came in from above while Eiko and Jiraiya covered the exits. Satsuki landed right next to Naruto and socked him square in the face. 'POOF'

It was only then that Satsuki realized that in her haste she missed that there were several pockets of demonic chakra all around the village. This was a trick. "Damnit!" She said as she looked down, mentally kicking herself.

 _With Naruto and Ayame_

They stood outside the wall on the Eastern side of the village. "Ayame, I've got to leave. Thank you for everything." He said, as he turned to leave.

Ayame just grabbed his hand and said, "I'm coming with you." Naruto shook his head. "It's too dangerous out there, I don't want you getting-" He was interrupted by Ayame's lips capturing his own. Naruto's head felt like it was about to explode, but he ignored it, intent on getting the most out of the moment that he could. They stayed like that for a moment before ending the kiss.

"I'm coming with you. I don't want you to be alone out there and I know how to defend myself." Ayame reasserted. She left no room for argument.

"Okay..." Naruto said meekly. Once again he fought back tears, _'She's sacrificing everything just to be with me...'_ He wiped away the tears that had only just begun to form. Ayame just smiled. "Come on, let's go Naruto-kun."

With that, the two left Seiki and headed towards the nearest village. Sunagakure no Sato.


	27. Chapter 27

**Hey guys! One last quick update before I get a bit busy again. It'll be at least a week until I update again, so I figured I'd just give you what I already had done. Hope you guys enjoy, and make sure you let me know what you thought in the reviews.**

Naruto and Ayame moved swiftly through the darkness. The light of the full moon shone down upon them as they dashed from tree to tree. They followed the rivers heading East towards Kaze no Kuni (The land of wind).

The pair landed in a clearing, about forty miles outside of Seiki. _'That was a lot of running'_ Ayame thought as she cought her breath. She had noticed that Naruto's injuries were starting to catch up with him about five minutes ago.

"Naruto, we should find a place to sleep for the night. We've got enough of a lead on them, your injuries still need time to heal." Ayame said, in concern for her companion. Naruto grunted. ' _I'm not used to waiting for my wounds to heal'_ He thought to himself. "Alright, we'll find a place to lay low." He said, finally.

The two eventually came across an aboandoned village. There were bloodstains on the floor, and most of the buldings had broken windows or doors. They found a small hovel on the outskirts of the town.

They opened the door, Naruto quickly reached out with his senses. ' _Nothing. Good.'_ Naruto ushered Ayame in through the front door and closed the door behind them. Naruto looked to Ayame and saw the uncertainty on her face. "Naruto, I can't see anything in here" She whispered. Naruto grabbed her hand, getting a suprised jump from Ayame until she realized that it was Naruto guiding her across the room.

Naruto led her to the only bed in the place. He sat her down and allowed her a moment to get comfortable, after which, he slowly crawled in after her. _'Ohmygod'_ Ayame thought to herself. _'Naruto and I are sleeping together'_ She thought.

The two shuffled around for a bit until they got comfortable. The two were now facing eachother with their legs tangled together. Naruto could sense that Ayame was on edge. _'Did I do something wrong?'_ He thought to himself. He slowly tried to back up but Ayame put her arms around him and pulled him closer to her.

Ayame's eyes had just begun to adjust to the room. She could see the outlines of his features, and she felt the warmth of his touch. She relaxed, and finally so did Naruto.

Naruto's body moved on it's own. He moved in and kissed her. She returned the kiss and brought him closer. Naruto's hands began to wander as he began to ravish her lips with his. The pain in Naruto's head returned, but he tried to ignore it. Ayame took off Naruto's shirt and rolled on top of him.

The young woman stopped abruptly, feeling Naruto's breathing start to hitch. _'I totally forgot about what the demon did to him!'_ She tought to herself, half-annoyed, half-worried. "Naruto, I'm sorry are you okay?" She asked. Naruto just motioned for her to lay back down on the bed. "I'm fine... that was worth it." He said quietly. Ayame blushed as she laid back down on the bed and worked her head into the crook of his neck. The two relaxed once more and fell asleep.

 _Naruto/Kurama's mindscape_

Kurama snarled. The seal Kurama had stuck her in was nothing to laugh at. Certainly not at the level of the **Shiki fuin** (Reaper Death Seal) but complex and tough nonetheless. She had slowly regained access to parts of Naruto's mind. She still couldn't talk to him, but she had a decent idea of what was happening around him.

She could sense the chakra around Naruto. She had been trying to gain access to Naruto's memories to see what was happening around him. She had sensed that he was in a village for a while, but then left abruptly with one other person, who was now way too close to him for her to be comfortable. She reached out with her chakra to try and identify this person.

 _'Human. Jonin level reserves... FEMALE... GAH'_ Kurama lashed out in the cage, trying ever harder to smash the seal to bits. She took a deep breath. _'This better not be Hikari'_ She thought as she tried even harder to identify this person. As far as she could tell, this could be Hikari or just some Jonin from whatever village he'd been taken to.

 _'His mindscape has been slowly repairing itself, if they're manipulating him I'll rip their throats out'_ She snarled.

She hated not knowing what happened to Naruto, and more importantly, not being able to do anything about it pushed her over the edge. She hadn't felt like this since Naruto had been taken by Akatsuki. She knew that Naruto still had some of her... 'mental conditioning' that she'd put in place to protect him still working. It was purely on a mental level, and had nothing to do with chakra. The only way those were coming undone was through years of reconditioning.

Then there was the other problem. She had been feeding Naruto bits of her demonic chakra in an attempt to start converting his chakra pathways into those of a demon. She hadn't told him, but she knew that's what he wanted. More to the point, his body has become accustomed to his daily dose of her chakra. Since she had been sealed, this couldn't happen. If she didn't break out of here soon, years of work would be undone. Worse, the withdrawal symptoms were horrid. Once the transformation was complete, he'd begin creating his own demonic chakra but that was several years away and he needed it now.

His body had slowly been changing because of this demonic chakra, but his physiology would rapidly begin to return to that of a human's. That would be very painful. _'I'll be there soon Naruto! Hold on for just a little longer and you'll be back with me.'_ Were her final thoughts as she began wittling away at the seal once more.

 _Seiki_

When Jiraiya's investigation had turned up nothing as to the boy's whereabouts, he sent a message to Izumi.

 _We arrived in a village called Seiki near Kawa no Kuni's eastern border. We missed him by minutes. Trying to pick up the trail again. I found Konan here, and she's offered to assist us in any way she can. I'll contact you again when I find something._

Jiraiya sent the message on it's way and let out a deep sigh. _'I knew this wasn't going to be easy, but this is insane.'_ He looked up at the sky. _'I'm sorry Minato, Kushina. I can still set this right.'_ He resolved himself once more.

Satsuki hadn't stopped kicking herself since last night. 'Damn that slippery bastard!' She thought to herself. Suddenly, she remembered something.

 _Memory_

 **(AN: I figured I'd try something other than a generic flashback considering that's not how most people recall things in their lives)**

 _She was... Upset, no... She was annoyed. She remembered a young boy, about her age sticking his tongue out at her and ran away. She gave chase. She knew she wasn't truly mad at him, this was a friendly angry, if that was a thing._

 _They had started at the Shinobi Academy, and worked their way into the heart of Konoha. She saw him turn the corner to the market district. By the time She rounded the corner, he was gone._

 _Memory end_

"... Satsuki?" A confused Jiraiya had been trying to get the attention of the vacant Uchiha for about thirty seconds now. Suddenly, she sprung to life. "Huh?" She asked just as confused as he was.

"I asked if you were heading back to Kusagakure or if I had the pleasure of you sticking around." Jiraiya stated.

"Ah... I think I'll stick with you, I need to ask Naruto some questions..." She answered.

That piqued Jiraiya's interest. _'What could she possibly want with Naruto? Now that I think about it, she hasn't really had a reason for coming with me. I assumed it was just to stay away from Izumi, but there's clearly more to this.'_ He thought to himself.

Konan rushed up to the two of them. She had spent the majority of the afternoon into the early morning scouring the borders of Seiki for clues so that Satsuki and Jiraiya could rest.

"I found footprints on the eastern shore. It looks like Ayame and Naruto left in that direction." She said.

"Thank you Konan, we'll be heading that direction shortly. Why don't you go rest?" Jiraiya put his hand on her shoulder.

Konan just looked him in the eyes. "Naruto is... special to me... I want to go with you." She said with conviction. Satsuki scoffed.

Jiraiya just smiled. "It'll be good to have you along for the ride then, we're leaving in an hour, we'll meet you on the Eastern shore."

Konan nodded. She had spent most of last night trying to make a decision as to whether she should stay or she should leave. She had a duty to her people, but Naruto needed her now more than ever. She had delivered her people to safety however, Seiki would not fall in her absence. So she made up her mind.

Eiko was none too pleased at Konan's abrupt descision to leave. But decided that it was in the greater good of the elemntal nations to not let a demon run free. Especially one that she had just made and enemy of.

 **Muhahahahhah, you all thought you were finally gunna get a lemon. XD Sorry for the tease, It'll probably happen... Eventually. I've never really written one before and as it turns out, my story has bought me some time. You'll get one soon(ish) Thanks again for tuning in. See ya around.**

 **~Howl's curse**


	28. Chapter 28

**Hey guys! It's been a while, but I finally got some free time to start writing again. Make sure you leave a review after reading and let me know what you guys thought! Thoughts, ideas, concerns? Leave a review or PM me and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Hope you enjoy!**

~Howl's Curse

Naruto's eyes opened slowly. He felt a bit better than the day before, even if his body still ached. Ayame had already woken up and was sitting at the edge of the bed. "Sleep well?" She asked.

"Yeah." Naruto said as he sat up abruptly. 'Hopefully we weren't followed last night' He thought to himself as he gave out a yawn. Ayame grabbed some small provisions from a scroll on her belt and handed some to Naruto who perked up at the food.

After eating, the two got ready to move. "If I had to bet, the people following us aren't too far behind us by now, we'll try to lose them in the desert."

"Are you sure Naruto? People don't usually come back from there alive. Kaze no Kuni is considered the most dangerous place on the continent right now." Ayame said skeptically.

"We'll be fine, just believe in me." Naruto said with a smile.

 _Meanwhile at the western edge of the town_

Jiraiya stood in a tree side by side with Satsuki and Konan on either side of him. They had spent most of last night trying to catch up to Naruto, and had finally followed his trail into this village. "I can't sense the Kyubi's chakra here, but maybe he left something behind. Let's split up and look for clues." Jiraiya said softly. The three headed off into different parts of town.

 _With Naruto and Ayame_

Naruto had picked up on the proximity of the people tracking him, Konan's was the faintest due to it being spread across all of her paper, but certainly the most recognizable to the young man.

Naruto mentally scoffed, 'Konan…you're out here too?' He thought to himself. "Ayame, they're here we need to move now." He said quietly as he ushered Ayame into the forest. "Hopefully they don't-" Naruto stopped himself from continuing and threw one of the few kunai he had left at an origami butterfly watching them from the trees. It landed dead center and pinned the paper to a tree. "Shit." Was all Ayame muttered as the pair began darting through the forest full speed.

 _With Konan_

Konan frowned, as she picked up Naruto's location. 'Chasing him like this feels wrong, but he needs help. I can help give that to him now but he won't accept it, but why? Naruto and Izumi seemed as close as could be back in Akatsuki. Which only further pushes the point that the Kyubi was making him run from this.' Then her thoughts shifted to Ayame, 'The girl was smart, just blinded by emotion. Hopefully she'll figure out that Naruto needs help and convince him to come back'.

She sent a message to Jiraiya and Satsuki. The three gave chase to Naruto and Ayame.

 _Kusagakure no Sato_

 _With Izumi_

Izumi had healed from her fight with the Kyubi controlled Naruto. She had a few visible scars and others that had haunted her the past few nights in a row. Due to Oriko's apprehension and a conversation with Tsunade, she had hope that the world could be saved, along with Naruto. But all that hope was riding on Naruto's capture. Right now, she was busy studying the sealing scroll that Hikari had on her. It was difficult for her to understand at first, but she had been making decent progress on perfecting it, especially with the lack of sleep.

There was still going to be some problems with Jiraiya and some of her other allies when it comes to Naruto, but she already had a plan…

 _With Hikari_

She had spent the last few weeks attempting to break out of her cell. She didn't rely on chakra, so the suppression seals didn't really affect her, but the cell itself was too sturdy for her to break out of with just her bare hands. She was starting to give up hope of escape when she heard a guard hit the ground outside her cell.

White Zetsu jangled the keys in his hands playfully, while Black Zetsu attempted to reduce the amount of noise created by speaking instead of letting white Zetsu speak. " **Hello, Hikari… We have a deal for you."**

Hikari smirked madly.

 _Back with Izumi_

A guard walked into Izumi's office panting. "Ma'am Hikari has escaped the village!" He gasped. This caused Izumi's sealing brush to veer of course. "What?!" Izumi seethed. She had been focused on Tsunade and Oriko that most of her security was away from Hikari. She should've seen this coming.

 _With Naruto_

Naruto moved out of the way of several kunai flung by Satsuki. Several explosions toppled the tree naruto was in, knocking him to the ground. "Naruto!" Ayame yelled before she was engaged by Satsuki.

Naruto recovered quickly and leapt from the ground after hearing Jiraiya shout, " **Doton: Yomi Numa!"** (Earth style: Dark Swamp). Naruto was panting as he landed on the ground. 'This is not good' He thought to himself.

"Naruto, just come back to Kusa with us. Izumi and I can help you." Konan pleaded with Naruto. Even hearing Izumi's name was painful for Naruto to hear, but he grit his teeth. "I can handle it on my own with Ayame! Just leave us alone!" Naruto shouted angrily as he got into a taijutsu stance.

"We can't do that Naruto," Jiraiya said in a low tone as he also prepared to fight. Konan hesitated for a moment before dispersing into a storm of paper surrounding Naruto and Jiraiya.

The fight was fast paced, but Jiraiya had a small advantage even just on his own. This Naruto seemed very different from the Naruto he and Izumi had fought before.

Jiraiya threw a punch at his godson, only for Naruto to sidestep and go to counter, but his attack was interrupted by Konan who had appeared behind him and grabbed his arm. Jiraiya used this opening to trip Naruto, who fell to the forest floor. Konan twisted his arm behind his back and pinned him to the ground. Naruto struggled against Konan for a few seconds before he pleaded, "Konan let me go!" Konan's resolve flickered for a moment as she responded, "I'm doing this to help you Naruto." Naruto's struggling only became more fierce when Jiraiya went to put a seal on him. "Let me **go!"** He shouted as black chains sprouted from the ground around him and would've impaled Konan had she not turned to paper as the attack hit. The chains slammed into Jiraiya's chest, though and sent him flying into a tree unconscious, with a burn across the area he'd been hit.

 _With Ayame and Satsuki_

Ayame was struggling to keep up with Satsuki. She was defending herself well, but was being pushed back towards Konan and Jiraiya's fight with Naruto. She saw an opening, Satsuki had overextended and Ayame used the opportunity to slam a chakra empowered fist into the Uchiha's side, sending her flying across the forest floor. "Why are you even chasing after Naruto! Just leave him alone!" She shouted.

"Because he killed many of my comrades and… I need answers" Ayame was stunned for a moment while Satsuki stood back up.

'Naruto did what?' Ayame thought to herself. 'It must've been the damn fox!' She thought to herself. She steeled her resolve and gathered her chakra.

Satsuki sighed. This was going to be more difficult than she'd expected. She activated her Sharingan and started going through hand seals, " **Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu"**. A ball of fire was thrown at Ayame, who dodged gracefully, and began to charge the Uchiha. Satsuki went for another ninjutsu, " **Katon: Housenka no Jutsu"**. She shouted as several smaller fireballs were launched at the approaching kunoichi, who once again managed to dodge them all.

Ayame threw a punch at Satsuki, who saw the attack coming dodged. She followed up with an elbow to Ayame's abdomen that sent her skidding back, then drew her katana and went to slash Ayame who slightly panicked and used Seiki's signature jutsu. " **Ninpo: Chakra no Kenju!"** (Ninja art: Chakra gauntlets) She said as she grabbed the sword before it hit its mark. She pulled the sword towards her, taking an off guard satsuki with it and slammed her other chakra gauntlet into Satsuki's face sending her flying once again through the forest.

Ayame snapped her katana in half and threw the pieces of the sword on the ground near her. "Is that all you got, bitch?! If you can't take me what makes you think you could even touch Naruto-kun!" She taunted and got ready for Satsuki once more, but wasn't expecting Satsuki to swap with the hilt of the sword and kick her into the air.

 _Flashback_

Six year old Satsuki was chasing after a young blonde-haired boy through the streets of Konoha and had lost him on the streets. She was fuming. Unbeknownst to her Naruto came up behind her and bopped her on the back of the head and ran off into an alleyway, she made her way through the crowd and into the alleyway.

 _Flashback end_

Satsuki was pissed, 'I'm ending this now, I don't care if she's important to Naruto anymore, I can't waste any more time.' The chirping of birds could be heard throughout the forest.


	29. Chapter 29

_**Hey Guys, Howl's Curse here again with another chapter of my fanfic. I've been really busy, and not exactly timely with my updates. For that I apologize, College is... interesting. Anywho, I've been thinking about trying to rewrite a lot of my older chapters recently, seeing as how my writing skills have gotten better since then. When I do update from now on, it'll be about 1.5 to 2k words per chapter. (Sorry for those of you've who've been waiting patiently, but I have a very difficult time writing long chapters) Hopefully, with winter break coming up, I'll be able to post a few more chapters before I get sucked back into college BS.**_

 _Flashback_

A young Satsuki entered the alley fuming, "Naruto!" She made her frustration known. Naruto realizing he'd begun to take things too far sheepishly. "S-sorry Satsuki-chan, I was just trying to have a little fun." Satsuki huffed. "Well if you wanted to play or something, you could've just asked…" She said quietly. All the other kids kind of ignored Naruto, and she felt really bad that he'd always be left out.

At this, Naruto turned red as a tomato. "W-would you wanna-" He was cut off. A group of people had stumbled into the alleyway. A group of much older delinquents from the academy noticed the commotion Naruto and Satsuki had caused and followed it back here. "Aw look, it's an Uchiha bitch, and the demon." He let out a mocking cackle afterwards, and looked back towards his two friends who had large smirks on their faces.

One of them approached Satsuki and grabbed her by the arm, "Why don't you come with us, and leave this loser behind?" At this, Satsuki kneed him in the crotch and backed away from him. "You little bitch… That's it! Both of you are going to die!" He said as he pulled out a kunai and charged straight at Satsuki. Naruto, seeing this happen almost in slow motion instinctively moved to get in the way of the blade.

 _End_ _Flashback_

Naruto leapt in front of Satsuki's Chidori as a flash of recognition entered her eyes. The ball of lightning landed inches from his heart, and the entire clearing fell silent for a moment. Naruto's eyes were overshadowed by his hair, as Satsuki felt his body begin to go limp.

Ayame watched in horror as her newfound love took the blow meant for her.

Naruto's world was pain right now. His vision began to turn black and he fell to one knee in front of Satsuki. "Naruto!" Ayame shouted as she was quickly encased in a paper cocoon.

The black chains from earlier lay around his feet, He slowly lifted his head to look at Satsuki, she could see a flash of deep crimson in them and slowly stood back up. It was almost as if he were in a trance. His vision was still blurred, but Naruto was still in business.

Satsuki was stunned at first, but wound up throwing a kick towards Naruto, only to be caught off guard when one of the chains flared to life and grabbed her by the ankle. It began to burn away her skin for the brief moment she was attached to it before it threw her across the forest.

Then Naruto reared his head at Jiraiya who had only just now recovered. 'Ah shit' The Sannin thought to himself, before chains erupted from the ground below him. He managed to leap out of the way, but another set of chains was already being sent his way. Naruto disappeared, then reappeared right behind Jiraiya, with more chains. Caught completely off guard, Jiraiya was unable to avoid his arm being grabbed by a chain. The rest of his body soon followed.

Jiraiya let out a scream of agony as the chains wrapped themselves around him, and slowly began to encase him. Naruto just let out a wicked smile, " **Suffer!"** He shouted gleefully.

Konan released Ayame and ran over to Naruto. "Naruto! Please! Let him-" Naruto bashed her away with one of his chains, sending her flying through the forest.

Ayame once again watched with horror at the scene in front of her. She approached Naruto, who let out a low growl as she got within reach. "Naruto… Stop this please!" One of the chains snaked its way around her leg, but she embraced him through the pain.

Naruto slowly began to calm down, the chains receded until Jiraiya was left unconscious, but in critical condition, on the forest floor covered in burns. Finally, all the chains had disappeared, and Naruto instantly fell to his knees again, panting heavily.

He looked at Ayame, who had collapsed on top of him and down at the burn across her ankle. "Ayame... I'm so sorry… I didn't mean to-" She cut him off. "Never scare me like that again! I was so worried Naruto…" She started to sob, but fought back the tears. Then she began to get a bit angry. "Let's just get out of here while we can, but I expect an explanation as soon as we're safe, you idiot." She said, quite clearly upset.

Naruto looked at the downed form of his godfather. A part of him was screaming at him to kill him, but another part of him just wanted to leave with Ayame. He just nodded numbly at her before limping away arm in arm with Ayame, grateful she was even still talking to him.

A few minutes later, Satsuki and Konan returned to clearing where they found an unconscious Jiraiya and a choice: Take Jiraiya back to heal at Seiki, or try to heal him on the way. Neither of the two kunoichi were medical ninja however, and couldn't really tell what kind of damage had been done to him.

"We need to get him back to Seiki, we can pick up the trail later." Konan said to Satsuki, who was busy looking for tracks. The Uchiha just shook her head. "By the time he heals up the trail will have gone cold. I'll just follow them from a distance, while you take Jiraiya back to Seiki. Keep in touch." She said as she began following Naruto's trail.

Konan just sighed. 'I had no idea it was this bad…' She thought to herself as she picked up her former master and began heading home.

 _Meanwhile with Kurama_

She knew that Naruto was hurt. Bad. "Gragh!" She shouted angrily as she beat against the bars of her temporary cage for the thousandth time today. 'I have to get back to him! Or he could die or worse…' Her mind drifted to Izumi. She had been able to figure out that Jiraiya and a couple other chakra signatures she recognized were in a pretty intense fight with her container, but could not identify who they belonged to. At this, she just became more livid and rammed into the bars another time, denting the cage keeping her from Naruto. She hissed in pain, her shoulder felt like it was about to give out, and was certainly bruised.

She sensed whatever little demonic energy Naruto had stored up being released as well, which would only accelerate his reversion to human physiology, which could be lethal if Naruto was as wounded as he is now. 'It's now or never Kurama!' She thought to herself as she once again bashed into the cage.

 _Back with Naruto_

It had been a little over an hour since his fight with his pursuers. The pain was still just as bad if not worse, 'I have to keep moving' he thought to himself through pained breathing. Because of how he'd hurt Ayame, she wouldn't be able to move properly for a while, and they were relying on each other for support to keep moving.

Ayame noticed his hurt expression, but they needed to keep moving. She tried her best to support Naruto and keep herself up, but her leg would give out if she did any more than she already was.

The two moved in relative silence, both silently praying that the Zinra did not find them like this. Naruto felt a deep pulse reverberate through his body as he fell to the ground followed by Ayame, caught off guard by his sudden fall. Every muscle in his body began to contract, and he barely managed to stifle a scream of pain.

Ayame quickly rolled him onto his back and looked over his wounds. The damage from the chidori was worse than she had first expected, but there seemed to be much more wrong with Naruto than she had originally believed.

She removed her gaze from the wound in his torso and redirected it at his eyes. They were flashing a deep crimson, like before. His muscles were contracting in ways she didn't think possible. Then she heard a rustling from the bushes. Three Hunter Zinra, slowly creeped into the clearing. Their attention went past Ayame and was locked on Naruto. 'Shit!' Ayame thought to herself as she tried to form her chakra gauntlets again, to no avail.

Then, a figure burst from the treeline and landed right on top of one of the Zinra, crushing it beneath the force of its impact. " **Katon: goukakyuu no jutsu"** (Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu) Satsuki said as the flames engulfed the two other unsuspecting hunters.

When she turned to face Naruto and Ayame, her sharingan still active, Naruto's head erupted in pain even more than it already was due to her resemblance to Izumi activating the conditioning. He would've screamed out in pain had his body been able to, but he couldn't quite find his voice right now.

"Maybe this will be easier than I thought." Satsuki said with a smirk, while Ayame stared at her defiantly.

 _ **Once again, thank you all for reading and make sure you leave a review or PM me. I'll do my best to get back to you as soon as I can. ~Howl's Curse**_


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